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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27406771">Ash &amp; Kiawe Do Kanto</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/grainjew/pseuds/grainjew'>grainjew</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Anime)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Canon Compliant, Friendship, Gen, Gym Challenges (Pokemon), Pokemon Contests, i am simply here to have a good time, in keeping with the source material there are exactly zero (0) stakes in this fan fiction, this fic used to have an update schedule and now it doesn't and im very sorry about that</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-05-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-08 23:55:09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>69,921</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27406771</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/grainjew/pseuds/grainjew</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Olivia insists Kiawe go on an adventure before tying himself to Alola forever. Ash, newly a Champion, hasn’t quite figured out what he wants to do next. The Kanto gym and contest circuits are <i>right there.</i></p><p>A post-Alola pre-Journeys regionfic in the same sort of vein as the Battle Frontier arc.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Kaki | Kiawe &amp; Satoshi | Ash Ketchum</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>203</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>276</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Viridian City</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/fallingwish/gifts">fallingwish</a>.</li>



    </ul></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Kiawe was pretty sure he was on the wrong bus.</p><p>This was more concerning than he was particularly comfortable with. If he got on the wrong bus in Alola — not that he ever rode the bus, but that was beyond the point — he could just get off and have Charizard carry him to where he needed to be. But he wasn’t in Alola, and Charizard’s pokeball was back with his family so milk deliveries could get done while he was gone.</p><p>Instead, he was in Kanto. And he was pretty sure that Pallet Town was in the opposite direction from Pewter City, if he was remembering the maps he’d looked at right.</p><p>Then he’d better get off the bus at Pallet Town before he went any farther, he decided. He could walk to Pewter City, he didn’t need any busses! And he’d been to Pallet Town before, so he’d be fine! It was more familiar than the rest of this region, at least.</p><p>“Come on, Marowak!” he said, picking up his egg off his lap and standing. “We’re getting off.”</p><p>“Maro-marowak?” said Marowak.</p><p>“I know,” said Kiawe. “But we can’t just sit and wait for a bus to take us there! We need to <em>move!</em> Get fired up! Driver, we’re getting off at Pallet Town!”</p><p>The driver grunted something Kiawe couldn’t make out, which was about how she’d been addressing him this whole time. Kiawe didn’t like busses.</p><p>The Pallet Town stop turned out to be on the outskirts of the town itself, which suited Kiawe. He didn’t bother heading in — he’d already seen it, and Ash was probably off on another adventure already so there went his only other reason to visit — and just turned around and started retracing his (well, the bus’s) steps. </p><p>It couldn’t be <em>that</em> far. Kanto was bigger than Alola, but it couldn’t take him more than a day or two to reach Pewter City on foot. And it would be good for both him and Marowak to get some exercise in. And Turtonator, if it wanted to join them. And — he looked down — the egg in his arms. The perfect, wonderful, pristine egg in its perfect incubator that was his to raise and care for and protect and love. His own pokemon egg! Not even getting on the wrong bus and being stuck in an unfamiliar foreign region nothing like home could make him sad about his <em>egg!</em></p><p>He started getting bored about twenty minutes later.</p><p>The road was more like a dirt path with trees on either side, and there were only so many of the same foreign tree Kiawe could look at before they all looked the same. Marowak, at least, was having fun darting in and out of shadows, but Kiawe was almost <em>(almost)</em> considering walking back to the bus stop and waiting the three hours for the next bus back to Viridian City when he heard— that was <em>Ash.</em></p><p>“—awesome, Pidgeot!” Ash was shouting from somewhere up ahead and a little to the side, and Kiawe broke into a run, careful to not jostle the egg. “Now use Air Slash. And Torterra, catch it with Leaf Storm! Yeah, now send it back!” A pause. “Awesome! You’re both so— whoa, <em>Kiawe?</em>”</p><p>Ash was standing on a branch halfway up a tree with Pikachu beside him, directing a spar between a massive torterra and an obviously battle-hardened pidgeot.</p><p>“Alola,” said Kiawe, trying to catch his breath.</p><p>Belatedly, Ash fell out of the tree in shock.</p><p>“Pikapi!” shouted Pikachu, as they all converged on him. </p><p>Ash sat up, rubbing his arm. The torterra nudged him with its head. “I’m fine, promise! Kiawe just really startled me!”</p><p>“Ah, sorry,” said Kiawe, because he wasn’t sure what else to say. “I heard you training—”</p><p>Ash grinned. “Yeah! Aren’t Pidgeot and Torterra awesome? Pidgeot and Torterra, this is Kiawe and Marowak, my friends from Alola! And these are my friends Pidgeot and Torterra, who’re both super strong and amazing!”</p><p>“Alola,” said Kiawe, to the pokemon. “It’s good to meet more of Ash’s pokemon.” </p><p>“Marowak!” added Marowak, and almost went to go poke at Torterra’s shell before Kiawe managed to grab its shoulder. “Maro maro.”</p><p>“Don’t be rude,” he told it. </p><p>Ash stood up, and Pikachu jumped to the shoulder he hadn’t been rubbing at. “It’s awesome to see you, Kiawe,” said Ash. “But I thought you were gonna stay in Alola?”</p><p>“So did I,” sighed Kiawe. He glanced down at his egg to check on it. “But Kahuna Olivia insisted I needed to go on an adventure before I tied myself to Alola, and, well, she’s the kahuna and my teacher…”</p><p>“So you came to Kanto? Hey, that’s awesome, we can travel together!” Ash waved his hands around and grinned again, then glanced at Pikachu. “What do you think, buddy, wanna travel with Kiawe?”</p><p>“Pika-<em>chu</em>,” said Pikachu. It nodded vigorously.</p><p>“Yeah!” said Ash. He took a step towards Pidgeot. “Pidgeot, d’you mind if I—?”</p><p>“Ohht,” chirped Pidgeot, and crouched a bit so that Ash and Pikachu could climb on its back. “Pidg-pidgeot!”</p><p>“Be right back, everyone!” shouted Ash, and then Pidgeot was knocking up massive gusts of dirt and leaves with its wings and they were gone.</p><p>“Um,” said Kiawe. He looked at Torterra, who managed to shrug despite its heavy shell. Marowak was climbing a tree. “He doesn’t even know— whatever.”</p><p>He sat down. Checked on his egg. Released Turtonator and told it to enjoy itself. Looked around. </p><p>The forest was nice enough, now that he wasn’t trudging through it, and Ash had found a beautiful little clearing to use as a battlefield. Grass and unfamiliar blue flowers lined its edges, and had probably covered the whole thing before Ash had started using it for battles: now the floor was just bare packed dirt scattered with rocks. He’d trained with fire types here for sure, probably for years, and Kiawe was very offended on principle that he hadn’t been introduced to them already.</p><p>He wondered what Ash was doing. He wondered what Ash <em>had</em> been doing. Torterra didn’t seem like Ash’s usual type of pokemon, slow and bulky and solemn as it watched Marowak crow victory from a treetop and shake its club at the sun. But Ash was full of surprises, and had been able to work equally well with Meltan as with Melmetal, so Kiawe was sure he had something up his sleeve. They should have a battle when he got back. Torterra against Turtonator. No, a double battle — Torterra and Pidgeot against Turtonator and Marowak. Pikachu could watch the egg while the rest of them battled.</p><p>Where <em>was</em> he?</p><p>Kiawe had just about resigned himself to walking back to Pallet Town after all when a massive <em>whoosh</em> of displaced air hit him in the face and Pidgeot landed. Ash tumbled off its back immediately, laughing, and Pikachu followed him with a more composed leap. </p><p>From the ground, Ash said, breathless, “Sorry I took so long! Mom was fussing, and it took a bit to get Professor Kukui to pick up. But I’m ready to go! Come on out, everyone!” He tossed a flurry of pokeballs into the air as he sat up, and Rowlet emerged, sleeping in flight, as Incineroar and Lycanroc landed gracefully and Melmetal hit the ground with a <em>clunk</em>.</p><p>“Since we’re gonna be traveling with you, Kiawe, I thought it would totally be a good idea to have <em>my</em> alolan family along too! And—” He reached out and caught Torterra’s beak in his hands. “D’you want to come too, Torterra?”</p><p>Kiawe swore he saw a flower bloom in Torterra’s tree. It nudged Ash’s face with its cheek, and he burst into a grin. “Terra.”</p><p>“Awesome! Let’s—” He paused. Released Torterra’s face and stood up. “Kiawe, where <em>are</em> we going? And since when do you have an egg?”</p><p>Kiawe blinked at him. </p><p>“Pikach<em>uu</em>,” said Pikachu, from where it was sitting on Melmetal’s shoulder. “Pi pi pikachu, chupi pikapi.”</p><p>“I was excited!” said Ash. He opened his backpack for Rowlet to drop into. “And you were too, Pikachu!”</p><p>“Chu,” said Pikachu dryly.</p><p>“Professor Kukui gave me the egg,” said Kiawe, levering himself to standing. “Isn’t it beautiful?”</p><p>Ash walked over and stared at it. “Yeah! I wonder what it’s gonna hatch into! So exciting!”</p><p>“Isn’t it? I bet it’s gonna be a super powerful fire-type that <em>burns</em> with the <em>spirit of Alola!”</em> said Kiawe. It was so hard to remember not to gesture his enthusiasm. But no way was he going to drop his egg! “After all, Professor Kukui <em>is</em> the Masked Royal. So any pokemon from him is gonna be <em>amazing!</em>”</p><p>“Yeah!” said Ash. Pidgeot pecked him in the head. Kiawe wondered why he’d invited Torterra along but not Pidgeot. “So, what’re you gonna do in Kanto?”</p><p>When Kahuna Olivia had told him he needed to go on an adventure outside Alola, Kiawe had tried to remember what places <em>existed</em> outside Alola. He’d only ever been to Kanto, and in Kanto he’d only ever been to Pallet Town and Cerulean Gym. He didn’t want to go somewhere he’d never been. He didn’t want to leave Alola at all. But Kanto was second best, he’d figured. At least he knew what people did there.</p><p>“I was headed to Pewter City,” he said. “Brock beat me last time, but this time I’m gonna win a Boulder Badge for sure!”</p><p>“Oh, awesome, you’re doing the gym challenge? I wanna rematch all the gym leaders! This is great! Everyone, aren’t you excited? Pidgeot, you and the flock will wish us luck, right?”</p><p>His pokemon roared their agreement, and Kiawe smiled. </p><p>He still didn’t like having to do this journey, but at least he got to do it with Ash, who was wishing his Pidgeot a fond goodbye and chattering away with Pikachu and checking through his bag, who loved the world and loved traveling and knew Kanto like the back of his hand. At least there was that.</p><p> </p><p>“Inkay!” cried James, tears streaming down his cheeks.</p><p>“Gourgeist!” cried Jessie, tears streaming down her cheeks.</p><p>“Wobbuffet!” said Wobbuffet, for good measure. </p><p>Meowth glanced at Matori, who was rolling her eyes, the insensitive jerk. She could at least <em>pretend</em> to be happy at the reunion of old friends. </p><p>Then again, it wasn’t like Meowth was happy to see <em>her</em>, either, so at least she was in good company.</p><p>“If you’re done with the display,” she sniffed. Jessie and James ignored her — or didn’t hear her — so she coughed pointedly until they stopped crying. “You will remain in the Kanto region until your next mission is determined, is that clear?”</p><p>“Clear,” chorused the three of them, even though James was clinging to Inkay like his life depended on it and Jessie was apparently trying to learn Glare. </p><p>“Try not to cause too many problems.” She sniffed again. “Dismissed.”</p><p>They hurried back out of earshot, and then huddled together in the HQ halls to gossip before they left. </p><p>“I can’t believe that woman!” huffed Jessie. Gourgeist, too affectionate to go back to its pokeball, was hugging her from behind like a child having a piggy-back ride. “Not even letting us see the boss!”</p><p>“We get it, Jess,” said James. He’d been talking gently to Inkay even while they ran, carrying on a whole conversation only Meowth could actually understand. “I hate her too, but let’s at least get back in the balloon before you rip her to pieces, yeah?”</p><p>“Kay, inkay,” agreed Inkay.</p><p>“Ugh,” said Jessie. She gestured with her hair. “Fine. I’ll beat her someday, though.”</p><p>The balloon, luckily, was right where they’d left it, and they piled in, Inkay and Gourgeist floating upwards with them. Jessie kept alternating between frowning about Matori and smiling dreamily at Gourgeist, and James was feeding Inkay some pastries he’d apparently had in his pocket and not deigned to give the rest of them. Honestly! You’d think he’d know how to share by now, or were they not a team?</p><p>“So,” said Meowth. “We don’t have any orders, really. What should we do?”</p><p>“The same thing we always do,” said Jessie.</p><p>“The Twerp hasn’t left Kanto yet, has he?” asked James.</p><p>“Wobbuffet,” answered Wobbuffet, in the negative.</p><p>“Well then, let’s—” said Meowth.</p><p>“Catch Pikachu!”</p><p>“Inkay!”</p><p>“Gourgeist!”</p><p>The wind whistled loudly in their ears, this high up, and Meowth started wondering all over again how Jessie and James managed at this altitude without fur. Eh. Not his problem.</p><p>“And maybe,” added Jessie. “No, definitely, definitely! If we bring back Pikachu as a gift for the boss, that woman will finally acknowledge that I’m her superior in all ways! Especially looks, skill, and <em>dedication!</em>”</p><p>“Wobbuffet!”</p><p> </p><p>Ash was really, really happy. He got to journey around Kanto again! With <em>Kiawe!</em> He woulda never done it on his own; he liked seeing new places and new pokemon much more than he liked staying home. But seeing the same place with a new friend was basically the same thing as going somewhere totally new. He’d learned that a lot in Alola, that he didn’t have to keep moving to find interesting things when his friends were there to point out all sorts of amazing stuff he never would have thought of or noticed in a million years. </p><p>He’d been really excited to get back to traveling, but he’d also known even before he left Alola that he’d for sure miss things like that, from having a bunch of awesome friends and staying in one place. He’d known he would miss so much about Alola, and leaving everyone there, including his pokemon, had been one of the hardest goodbyes he’d ever said.</p><p>But here was Kiawe! And they were going to challenge the gyms, and Ash would be able to show all the gym leaders how much he’d grown since he first got their badges. And Kiawe would show them all how alolan battling works, and how cool he was, and hatch his egg, and Ash would get to see a friend make it to the League and travel <em>with</em> a rival. This was gonna be <em>so cool!</em></p><p>They were most of a day out from Pallet Town — the sun was falling below the trees—, and a bit less than a day to Viridian if they didn’t get lost. Which was a huge possibility, because Ash was really good at getting lost and Kiawe didn’t know how to read maps. They were trying to stick to the road, but it branched sometimes, and there were so many interesting things in the woods, that they kept getting sidetracked. There’d been a whole nest of sentret the earlier day, and then they’d helped a burmy learn Hidden Power and everything! It was awesome!</p><p>Thinking about that again was about when Pikachu’s weight disappeared unceremoniously off his shoulder. He wouldn’t have normally taken much notice, because Pikachu could do what it wanted, but usually Pikachu didn’t shout “Pikapi!” when it wandered off to look for something interesting, so Ash spun around and looked up and saw Team Rocket’s balloon floating like it had been there all along. Pikachu was dangling from a claw like in one of those carnival machines, sparking ineffectively.</p><p>“Hey!” he shouted. “Give back Pikachu, Team Rocket!”</p><p>“Wait, <em>they</em>’re here?” said Kiawe, spinning around and looking up. “How’d <em>they</em> get here?”</p><p>“Looks like we’ve been spotted,” announced Meowth.</p><p>Jessie and James struck poses.</p><p>“We’re breaking out the old motto, Twerps, so appreciate—”</p><p>“All the work we put into your pikachu’s fate—”</p><p>“So you better prepare for trouble!”</p><p>“And you better make it double!”</p><p>“To protect the world from devastation!”</p><p>“To unite all people within our nation!”</p><p>“To denounce the evils of truth and love!”</p><p>“To extend our reach to the stars above!”</p><p>“Jessie!”</p><p>“James!”</p><p>“Team Rocket, blast off at the speed of light!”</p><p>“Surrender now, or prepare to fight!”</p><p>“Meowth, that’s right!”</p><p>“Wobbuffet!”</p><p>“Pikachu, use Thunderbolt!”</p><p>Pikachu used Thunderbolt. It did nothing, which was about what Ash had been expecting, but sometimes they got lucky. </p><p>Rowlet was napping, which counted it out pretty definitely. Incineroar needed to get up close, and Melmetal was better at close-range too. Lycanroc could probably manage something, and it was out of its pokeball, but—</p><p>“Torterra, I choose you! Rescue Pikachu with Rock Climb!”</p><p>Torterra hadn’t even finished glowing with pokeball-light before it was summoning a Rock Climb pillar and charging into the air. </p><p>“Oh no you don’t!” shouted Jessie, grabbing a pokeball herself. “Gourgeist! Shadow Ball!”<br/>
She has— </p><p>“Marowak, counter with Bonemerang!” shouted Kiawe, hugging his egg, and Marowak threw its bone at the Shadow Ball to knock it off course and then started running up the pillar after Torterra. “Shadow Bone!”</p><p>“No way!” shouted James. “Okay, Inkay! Use Tackle on Torterra to knock it down!”</p><p>Kiawe could deal with Jessie and Gourgeist. “Torterra, defend with Leaf Storm!” </p><p>Like Ash had hoped, Torterra directed a Leaf Storm into the sort-of-Counter-Shield they’d been practicing when Kiawe had turned up, catching Inkay between sharp-edged leaves and tossing it right back at James’s face. Served him right. </p><p>“Hey!” he shouted. “Rude!”</p><p>“It’s good to see Inkay and Gourgeist again, it’s awesome they’re back with you!” answered Ash. Then he flung out an arm. “Now, Torterra! Use that Leaf Storm to cut down Pikachu!”</p><p>The redirected leaves cut through the metal without resistance, and Ash saw Marowak knock Gourgeist back to the balloon with a blistering Flare Blitz out of the corner of his eye.</p><p>Pikachu fell.</p><p>“Thunderbolt!”</p><p>Pikachu, with unerring accuracy, used Thunderbolt. </p><p>Team Rocket were lit for one moment in blinding yellow light, and then in the next were speeding towards the horizon. </p><p>“We’re blasting off for reaAAAAAALL!”</p><p>Pikachu landed in Ash’s arms. Marowak jumped to a tree branch and then to the ground. Torterra slid carefully down its Rock Climb pillar and then vanished it back into the earth. Ash and Kiawe looked at each other.</p><p>“I can’t believe they followed us here!” said Kiawe.</p><p>Ash shrugged. “They do that every time. They’re so annoying!” He made a face, then stopped making it looked at Torterra. “Torterra, you were so awesome! Thanks for helping save Pikachu!”</p><p>“Terra,” said Torterra. It nodded. “Torterra terra.”</p><p>“I’m glad you think so,” said Ash. “We’ll work on it even more! And Pikachu, I’m so glad you’re okay!”</p><p>“Pi, pikachu pikapi,” said Pikachu, and climbed back to his shoulder. Lycanroc was looking grumpy off to the side about not getting to join in, so Ash reached over and stroked it on the head. “Don’t worry, I didn’t forget you,” he said, scratching the rocks at its neck. “You can fight Team Rocket next time, promise!”</p><p>“Lycan,” said Lycanroc. </p><p>Kiawe was praising Marowak next to him about how strong and shining its Flare Blitz was, and Ash was surrounded by pokemon he loved, and he was traveling with a friend, and he was finally getting to work with Torterra about all the stuff he’d learned from Goodra, and Team Rocket had Inkay and Gourgeist back, and they were only a day from Viridian City. </p><p>Ash was <em>so excited.</em></p><p> </p><p>Three days, ten detours, and five dead-ends later (not that Kiawe was counting) they arrived at Viridian City.</p><p>Ash immediately led them to to the pokemon center, either ignoring or not noticing the weird looks the passerby were giving the two of them and their pokemon. Kiawe had gathered that Kanto was less open to trainers walking around with pokemon out of their pokeballs than Alola, which he thought was pretty stupid. But since Torterra and Turtonator were the only members of their teams that liked to stay in their pokeballs while traveling, and since — Ash said — you never saw alolan pokemon in Kanto, they got a lot of looks. Kiawe just stared back, most of the time. </p><p>This time, though, he was staring at the pokemon center, which had some kind of enormous red ball embedded in the roof and was up a flight of stairs like it was on a pedestal. He’d never seen a pokemon center so… ugly, in Alola. It was another harsh reminder that he was nowhere near home.</p><p>And stepping inside just made it worse. He’d thought, over the past few days, that he’d been getting a handle on the homesickness. Not getting over it, not ever getting over it, but getting used to it at least. Ash helped, and thinking of this journey as a challenge he could overcome helped. But stepping inside a pokemon center and seeing a Nurse Joy followed by a chansey instead of a comfey and a blissey, and realizing the symbol on her hat was purple instead of pink, and looking around at trainers covered in travel-dust and heavy clothes and with almost no pokemon with them at all: it hit him like a fist to the stomach, and he stumbled to a stop just inside the automatic doors.</p><p>But Ash glanced at him and frowned a little and said “C’mon, we gotta make sure our pokemon are alright!” </p><p>All Ash’s pokemon except Pikachu and — probably — Rowlet had returned themselves as they approached the pokemon center, and Marowak had followed suit, so they drew less stares than they had outside. Kiawe still stared right back at anyone who did decide to look as he followed Ash to the front desk. </p><p>“Hi Nurse Joy!” chirped Ash, handing over his pokeballs and then scooping Rowlet out of his bag like it was a liquid instead of a bird. Kiawe reluctantly added Turtonator and Marowak’s pokeballs to the pile, and then even more reluctantly put down his egg. “Can you take care of our pokemon please? They’re probably super tired!”</p><p>“Of course, we’ll have them back to you in no time!” said Nurse Joy. She watched Ash crane his head to look around at all the trainers scattered around the lobby, eating or waiting for their pokemon or socializing. “Is this your first time in Viridian City?”</p><p>“Kiawe’s, yeah!” said Ash, snapping his gaze back to her and pointing at Kiawe. “I’ve been by a few times. Hey, Nurse Joy, who’s the gym leader now?”</p><p>Nurse Joy tipped her head back and sighed so loudly that Pikachu turned around from where it was sitting on Chansey’s little medical trolley, helping keep the pokeballs from rolling away as Chansey went off to find a second tray.</p><p>Kiawe frowned. “Are they… unsuitable for the position?” A Nurse Joy’s approval meant enough that that kind of reaction from one was… worrying. Not that Ash’s scattered stories about his Kanto gym challenge had given Kiawe any clear idea about what the actual qualities that made a gym leader suitable were, but…</p><p>Nurse Joy laughed, though, a bit ruefully. “Oh, <em>hardly</em>. She’s too suitable, really. It should be an honor to have Agatha as our gym leader, but having an Elite Four member in that position tends to drive away challengers. And we already weren’t getting very many, considering the gym’s history. But she refuses to see it that way, and we can’t exactly ask her to leave. I mean, she’s <em>Agatha</em>.” Nurse flicked a hand. “Though I’ve <em>tried</em>.”</p><p>“Oh, awesome!” said Ash. He bounced a little. “You mean Agatha’s still here? That’s amazing, I totally thought she was meant to be a substitute!”</p><p>“She <em>was</em>,” muttered Nurse Joy.</p><p>“I <em>gotta</em> ask her for a rematch, then!” continued Ash, ignoring her. “Soon as our pokemon are doing okay!”</p><p>A <em>rematch?</em> Well, whatever. Kiawe reminded himself that he was traveling with the Champion of Alola. The Champion of Alola having fought a member of the Kanto Elite Four wouldn’t be at all surprising, if you just looked at their titles. And anyway, if Ash had managed to fight every single pokemon trainer in Kanto at some point or other, Kiawe wouldn’t be surprised. </p><p>But <em>wow</em>, an <em>Elite Four</em> member! And she was just running a gym? They <em>had</em> to come back here and challenge the Viridian gym when they were done at Pewter. An Elite Four member! Kiawe was so fired up already!</p><p>“Have it your way,” huffed Nurse Joy. “I think she should have left when the first suitable candidate was found. <em>Five years ago</em>.” Nurse Joy rolled her eyes again, and then straightened up like she’d just realized she was talking to visitors. “Well! All that aside, please enjoy your stay in Viridian City! Your pokemon will be back with you in no time!”</p><p>“Thanks, Nurse Joy!” said Ash and Kiawe, and then Ash dragged Kiawe over to one of the little table-booths to sit and wait.</p><p>Kiawe still didn’t like this pokemon center. It was shaped wrong, too, and the <em>atmosphere</em> was wrong. Everything about it was wrong. He missed Alola. He missed his sister and his parents and the mudbray at the ranch. He missed Charizard, too.</p><p>“C’mon!” said Ash. “I just realized, I gotta call Professor Oak! And you should call your family or Professor Kukui, yeah? It’s nice when you’re traveling, to call when you get to a pokemon center! Oh and I gotta call Max!”</p><p>Kiawe followed him to the videophones. Professor Oak picked up the call almost instantly, and Kiawe added in his opinions as Ash explained what he saw as the important parts of the last few days. He neglected to mention that they’d gotten a glimpse of a whole herd of kantonian ponyta, so Kiawe fixed that for him. And then Ash mentioned that Agatha was still the Viridian Gym Leader and Professor Oak laughed and said, “Oh, I know. We call regularly. I’ll let her know you’re coming to wreak havoc at her gym, Ash.”</p><p>“Hey!” said Ash.</p><p>“Hey!” said Kiawe.</p><p>“You too, Kiawe,” said Professor Oak. No matter how many times Kiawe saw him, he couldn’t get over how similar he looked to Principal Oak. It was eerie. Kiawe hoped his egg was okay with Nurse Joy and Chansey.</p><p>“We’re going to the Pewter Gym first, anyway,” he said. “I lost to Brock last time, but he doesn’t know how strong I’ve gotten! With the fire of Wela Volcano in my heart, I’ll win that badge!”</p><p>“Yeah!” said Ash. “And I’m gonna challenge Agatha before we leave Viridian, ‘cause I lost to her last time we battled but I’m definitely winning this time!”</p><p>Professor Oak chuckled. “Well, good luck to both of you. Make sure to contact me if you need anything! And Ash, I’ll let your mother know you’re doing well, yes?”</p><p>Ash made a face. “Don’t tell me she’s still annoyed at me leaving so fast.”</p><p>“You know it’s just because she’s worried. She’ll be glad to hear you’re happy.”</p><p>“Yeah, I know,” said Ash. “Thanks, Professor Oak! I’ll see you later!”</p><p>“Thank you,” said Kiawe. “I am very honored you’re willing to do so much for us.”</p><p>“Oh, no problem,” said Professor Oak, waving a hand. “You’re Ash’s friend and my cousin’s student. You just make sure to let me know if you have any problems. And—” Someone shouted in the distance. “Ah, Tracey must be having trouble with that herd of mankey again. See you all later!”</p><p>The videoscreen flicked off. </p><p>They called Professor Kukui next, who was delighted to see them and asked after Kiawe’s egg until Professor Burnet called him to help her because she was pretty sure she was burning the onions, so they were supposed to call back later, and then they were about to call Ash’s friend Max when the pokemon center chime rung and Pikachu dashed across the room and leapt into Ash’s arms. </p><p>“C’mon, let’s go find Agatha!” said Ash, when Kiawe had his egg back and they’d gathered up their pokeballs and told their teams to come out if they wanted.</p><p>“Race you to the gym!” said Kiawe. Marowak cheered.</p><p>“You’re on!” </p><p> </p><p>Kiawe lost, because he didn’t actually know where the gym <em>was</em> so he had to follow Ash, but he totally would have won if he’d known!</p><p>It turned out to be a big ostentatious building, as tacky as the pokemon center but in a totally different way, and Kiawe was starting to think this was just how they built things in Viridian City. Or maybe in Kanto as a whole. He wouldn’t be surprised.</p><p>Ash walked in the big double doors without knocking, and Kiawe followed him.</p><p>“Agatha!” he shouted. “Are you home?”</p><p>There was a chuckling from the shadows. The room was very dark, with only one flickering lightbulb high on the ceiling, and the wood creaked. Kiawe tightened his grip on his egg. </p><p>The doors slammed shut behind them. </p><p>The light went out.</p><p>Kiawe totally didn’t scream. But if he had, it was okay, because Ash screamed too and even his pokemon yelped a little. Marowak, on the other hand, made a delighted little “wak!” sound and shot away from Kiawe’s side like a bullet, lighting the room in an even more alarming way with blue fire from its club. Kiawe shivered. </p><p>The laughter got louder, and closer, and the room flickered in and out of sight as the shadows distorted, and—</p><p>“Gengar, please,” said an old woman’s voice, clear and strong. “Leave the guests alone.”</p><p>The shadows fled. In the light of a number of bright fluorescents and several open windows, the wide darkness of the room turned into a battlefield, dirt and then stone. Marowak was standing in the center, looking side to side in confusion until a gengar burst out of the floor, cackling. Then Marowak just shook its club at the gengar, outraged. Kiawe almost laughed. Marowak was so much more interested in being the one playing tricks than in receiving them, so it was always a little bit vindicating when the sides got switched.</p><p>Standing on the other side of the battlefield was the old woman who had spoken, her hands resting on a walking stick.</p><p>“Agatha!” said Ash. His voice was still weak from the shock, and Kiawe couldn’t exactly blame him.</p><p>Agatha squinted at them. She stepped forward a few steps, and then her face brightened. “Well, if it isn’t Ash! And you brought a friend?”</p><p>“Whoa, you remember me?” said Ash. “That’s awesome, thanks!”</p><p>Kiawe said, “Alola, I’m Kiawe, from Akala Island.” He pointed. “That’s Marowak, and this is my egg.”</p><p>“Marowak!”</p><p>“Lycanroc!”</p><p>“Incineroar.”</p><p>“Melmetal.”</p><p>Ash tossed his last pokeball. “And here’s Torterra, and Rowlet’s sleeping in my bag somewhere.”</p><p>Agatha shook her head, amused. “I correspond with Professor Oak; I could hardly forget you. Congratulations on your victory, by the way, young man. And it’s good to meet you, Kiawe, everyone. A challenger?”</p><p>Without waiting for Kiawe — or anyone else — to answer, she walked up to Marowak and held out a hand. </p><p>“Maro marowak!” said Marowak, banging its club on the ground. Well, now Kiawe was <em>really</em> excited to battle her, if Marowak got this excited just with her approaching! “Rowak, wak, marowak!”</p><p>“Nice to meet you too, Marowak,” she said. “I don’t get to see alolan marowak very often, this is quite the treat. And you look like such a lovely specimen!”</p><p>Ash leaned over. “She’s a ghost-type trainer,” he whispered. “Her gengar’s really powerful!”</p><p>“I can’t wait to battle her!” whispered Kiawe back. </p><p>Except it wasn’t actually whispering, because she straightened up and looked at them and crinkled her face in a smile. Kiawe was so bad at whispering. “Definitely a challenger, then. And you, Ash?”</p><p>“Yeah, I totally want a rematch!” said Ash. “Me and Pikachu’ll beat you and Gengar for sure this time!”</p><p>“So you think,” she said, smiling ominously. “I’m looking forward to an exciting battle! However, Kiawe, would you like to take your turn first? Seeing as we’ve never battled before?”</p><p>Kiawe frowned, and glanced down at his egg. Marowak swung its club. “I said I’d win the Pewter Gym’s badge first, so not yet.” He looked back up and clenched his hands into fists. “Even though I’m burning with all the fire in Wela Volcano to battle you! And so is Marowak!”</p><p>“Well, there’s certainly no rush,” said Agatha. She tapped her staff on the ground. “Ash, Pikachu, are you prepared?”</p><p>“You bet!”</p><p>“Pika!”</p><p>Ash stepped into the trainer’s box at his end of the field and handed Melmetal his bag so Rowlet could peek out if it wanted. His pokemon wandered over to the spectators’ side of the field, and Ash turned around. “Kiawe, can you judge? Can he judge, Agatha?”</p><p>“If he is capable and willing, then certainly,” said Agatha. “This is hardly an official match. Kiawe?”</p><p>“I’ll judge this match like no match has ever been judged before!” proclaimed Kiawe. He’d never actually judged a match before, minus a few here and there between Ash and Lana — Lillie usually appointed herself battle judge before anyone else could — but he wasn’t going to let that stop him! “Marowak, come help me out!”</p><p>“Excellent,” said Agatha, as Marowak dashed over to join Kiawe in the judge’s spot and Agatha stepped into her own trainer’s box. “Gengar?”</p><p>Gengar floated down from the ceiling to hover by her side.</p><p>Kiawe thrust one arm in the air, holding onto his egg very tightly with the other. “This will be a one-on-one battle between Ash from Pallet Town, Champion of Alola, and Agatha of the Kanto Elite Four! The last pokemon standing will win the match!” He chopped his arm down. “Begin!”</p><p>“Pikachu, let’s go! Quick Attack!”</p><p>Ash <em>knew</em> Quick Attack didn’t work on ghosts; he’d fought Marowak often enough, if nothing else. Which meant he had to be up to something. Kiawe steeled himself to remain objective, because it was totally unfair that he wasn’t the one battling Ash right now.</p><p>“Oh?” said Agatha, as Gengar floated out to stand in front of her, unconcerned. </p><p>Pikachu darted towards it in a Quick Attack blur, and then plunged directly into it like a stone dropped in a lake and came out the other side as Gengar tilted its head to the side.</p><p>“Iron Tail!”</p><p>Almost before Ash shouted the command, Pikachu’s tail was glinting silver and hitting directly where Gengar— had been, as it disappeared into the ground on Agatha’s quick “Dodge!”</p><p>“Very nice,” she said. “I was wondering what you were up to.”</p><p>Ash grinned. “I learned from last time. And this is just the beginning! Pikachu, the ground!”</p><p>Pikachu flipped mid-air and redirected its Iron Tail at Gengar’s shadow-impression on the ground, cracking it and sending dust up in a cloud. Gengar emerged, frowning.</p><p>“Gengar, Shadow Ball!”</p><p>“Pikachu, dodge!”</p><p>Pikachu dodged.</p><p>“Now Thunderbolt!”</p><p>“Double Team!”</p><p>“Hit them all with another Thunderbolt!”</p><p>The Double Team doubles popped under the force of a Thunderbolt that branched and spread until it was almost an Electroweb, and then Gengar popped out of the ground behind Pikachu.</p><p>“Pikachu, look out—”</p><p>“Gengar, Hypnosis!” Gengar glowed, and made images of its eyes that hit streaked towards Pikachu, and Pikachu dropped to the ground, dead-asleep.</p><p>“Excellent job, Gengar. Now use Dream Eater,” said Agatha. “Well, Ash?”</p><p>“Pikachu, wake up!” shouted Ash, urgent, almost demanding. There was a way he got when battling with Pikachu that Kiawe almost never saw from him otherwise, all rough and to-the-point and uncompromising. It wasn’t unkind, not really. It was more like the two of them had such a strong bond they could dispense with kindness until the battle was done. It was really no wonder that they had a z-move all their own. “Pikachu, come on!”</p><p>Gengar hit with the Dream Eater, leaving Pikachu ragged and still asleep.</p><p>“Shadow Ball,” said Agatha.</p><p>“Pikachu, dodge!” said Ash.</p><p>And Pikachu did. It darted out of the way just in time, blinking furiously, and immediately shot off an Electroweb on Ash’s command even though it still looked half asleep.</p><p>“Awesome, Pikachu!” said Ash. The Electroweb tangled Gengar, but it turned intangible and slipped through.</p><p>“Chu-pi!” said Pikachu. Its cheeks sparked. “Pikachu!”</p><p>“Yeah! We’re just getting started!”</p><p>“Well,” said Agatha. “So are we. Shall we begin?”</p><p>“You bet! Pikachu, get up close and use Iron Tail!”</p><p>“Gengar, Shadow Ball again!”</p><p>Pikachu redirected the Shadow Ball with its Iron Tail, skimming it and launching it at the floor, and then shot off an Electroweb to keep Gengar in place for the split second it needed to finish getting close. Gengar dodged the Iron Tail with a quick Double Team that scattered it in a circle around Pikachu, and Agatha called Hypnosis.</p><p>“Pikachu!” said Ash. “Close your eyes!”</p><p>“What?” said Kiawe. Pikachu wasn’t the kind of pokemon who could battle with eyes closed, not like a lucario or a noivern or anything. But Pikachu closed its eyes anyway—</p><p>And the Hypnosis glanced off it, completely harmless.</p><p>“Alright!” said Ash, throwing a fist in the air. “Keep your eyes closed, Pikachu!”</p><p>“Oh, this <em>is</em> getting interesting,” said Agatha. “Very well! Gengar, use Shadow Ball!”</p><p>“Pikachu, keep your eyes closed no matter what! Now… jump!”</p><p>Pikachu jumped, just in time, and the Shadow Ball hit the ground where it had been standing with a small explosion. “Use Quick Attack, run around the room!”</p><p>“Gengar, Double Team.” Gengar filled the battlefield. Pikachu ran right through one of the doubles, and it popped, which must have been because of Double Team itself not being ghost-type? Professor Kukui would be totally fascinated. “Shadow Ball.”</p><p>The doubles all produced a Shadow Ball between their hands, all twenty or more of them. Kiawe caught a flash of panic on Ash’s face, but it smoothed out almost as fast as it appeared, and he flung out an arm. “Pikachu, make an Electroweb around yourself!”</p><p>Pikachu complied, surrounding itself in a shining curtain of electricity. The gengar launched their Shadow Balls.</p><p>“Now!” said Ash.</p><p>Pikachu widened the Electroweb so fast it caught and rebounded the Shadow Balls back to their senders, and then popped the doubles themselves.</p><p>“Go.”</p><p>“Yeah!” said Ash. Then he blinked. “Wait, loo—”</p><p>Gengar, the real one, took form from Pikachu’s shadow: and hit it with a point-blank Shadow Ball.</p><p>Pikachu hit the ground hard.</p><p>“Pikachu, are you alright?” worried Ash. “Can you keep going?”</p><p>Pikachu stayed collapsed, and Kiawe remembered he was supposed to be judging. “Pikachu is unable to battle,” he announced. “Agatha and Gengar win!”</p><p>Ash rushed onto the battlefield and scooped Pikachu up in his arms as it started to get its bearings back and blink its eyes open. “That was totally awesome, buddy!” Pikachu chirped at him. “Mhm! And we’ve gotta work more on battling with your eyes closed, it’s super useful.”</p><p>“Chu-pika!”</p><p>“You did excellently. Thank you,” said Agatha, returning Gengar. “Now rest. We may have another challenger today, after all.”</p><p>“Maro, maro marowak!” shouted Marowak, jumping away from Kiawe’s side — where it had watched the battle with the intensity of the truly fascinated — back into the center of the battlefield. “Wak, marowak!”</p><p>“Not yet, Marowak,” said Kiawe, chasing it, but slowly, because he didn’t want to rattle his egg. “Remember, we’re going to Pewter City first, because Brock beat me and Turtonator during the field trip?”</p><p>“Maro…” muttered Marowak. It banged its club on the floor. “Marowak.”</p><p>Ash and Agatha were complimenting each others’ battle styles, meanwhile, with Pikachu chipping in and the rest of Ash’s team providing commentary. Kiawe smiled at Marowak. They’d get their chance soon, now that they knew what kind of opponent Agatha was. And in the meantime, they had extra time to plan for her. He was totally gonna win!</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>i have not written longfic since i was approximately 13 years old, so this is both unexpected and a little terrifying, but i'm also having a lot of fun and i hope you are too! </p><p>note: the whole fic is outlined, and i was originally going to wait till the whole thing was written before posting it but unfortunately i have no impulse control so please bear with me as we have this adventure together! i hope this heals a few hearts despite the state of the world</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Pewter City</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>They left Viridian City the next morning, as the sun rose. It wasn’t too many days to Pewter City — Ash hoped — and he was still glowing a lot from his battle with Agatha. He’d missed <em>battling</em> like that. Of course he’d gotten to during the League, but even then it was different. Alolan battling was kind of different than kantonian battling, and Ash liked them both an equal amount, but he’d gotten a little homesick. </p><p>And there hadn’t been that many battles to have, in Alola. Obviously he got to battle Kiawe and Lana and eventually the rest of the class <em>all</em> the time, and Professor Kukui sometimes, but Professor Kukui was too interested in pretending he wasn’t the Masked Royal to really go all-out which always left Ash feeling frustrated and weird, and battling the same people over and over wasn’t really what he wanted anyway. It was good, but after awhile it stopped being about the battling really and became a lot more about countering each other’s specific tricks. He knew exactly how a battle with him and Kiawe would go, because they’d already done it so many times. Even with Torterra, they’d already had a few spars, and Kiawe was starting to learn all Torterra’s little tells. </p><p>It was different, when you were traveling. Gym leaders were there to challenge you and help you grow even if you lost, and you met all sorts of interesting people on the road who might want to have a match, which meant you could learn all about different styles and ideas. That was the best part of traveling, to Ash. All the new things he could learn and see and try every time he took a step. And he loved Alola with all his heart almost more than he’d ever loved anywhere, even Pallet Town, but staying there for any longer would have made him explode. </p><p>So he wasn’t upset about losing to Agatha. She was super super strong, maybe even stronger than Lance, and he hadn’t fought anyone new in <em>ages</em>. And him and Pikachu had a whole new training technique to work on! That way they’d never be surprised by having to keep their eyes shut again. </p><p>They made camp that night by a stream, Kiawe collecting firewood with Marowak as Ash chopped up some berries and watched the egg for him. Ash was the better cook of the two, which they’d figured out their first night but which was still weird, because basically all Ash could cook was campfire food of the “shove everything in the pot and call it stew” or the “wrap everything in tinfoil and put it in the coals” variety. Brock had been very concerned about him traveling alone, so he’d made sure Ash could do the basics, and then Ash’d never really had an aptitude or a reason to learn more.</p><p>But Kiawe’s idea of cooking involved setting everything on fire and hoping, so Ash made do.</p><p>As the stew cooked, they had a practice battle, Pikachu and Torterra against Marowak and Turtonator, and then Kiawe and Marowak started working on something with its club while Ash went on a run with his team. Then they ate dinner, which was alright but mostly just made Ash miss traveling with friends who could actually cook, and then they sat down and watched the fire die.</p><p>“I guess you dunno what a gym battle’s like,” said Ash. He was stroking Rowlet’s head as it napped and leaning back against Melmetal. He thought he saw Lycanroc and Incineroar squabbling over the last few berries, but it was getting dark enough it was hard to tell.</p><p>Kiawe tilted his head. “I had one with Brock, and I saw yours today.”</p><p>Ash waved his hand back and forth a little. “Ehhh,” he said. “Those are sorta gym battles, but also sorta not. Cause, with Brock, he wasn’t really trying to test you or anything? Everyone was just showing off for each other. If that was a real gym battle he probably wouldn’t have had Steelix mega-evolve, not since it was your first time having one. It woulda been a more balanced battle.”</p><p>Kiawe made a noise that Ash couldn’t really decipher, except that maybe it had to do with him wanting a rematch. “And Agatha?”</p><p>“Well, she wasn’t trying to test me at all, we were just having fun. Cause I already have the Earth Badge and we battled once but it was a long time ago, so it was more like a regular battle than a gym battle. Gym battles are like…” Ash made a face. “They’re not like island trials much at all, really, those’re a lot more, uh, important’s the wrong word?”</p><p>“Sacred,” suggested Kiawe.</p><p>“Yeah, that!” said Ash. “Gym battles are just gym battles, anyone can ask for one. But,” he gestured, “they’re also sort of <em>like</em> Grand Trials ‘cause they’re all about the gym leader trying to challenge you in an interesting way, so that you and the gym leader but especially you all learn something. Cilan always used to say that the reason you need eight badges to enter the League is ‘cause of each badge symbolizing you figuring out how to solve a different sort of problem, and when you’ve done that eight times you’re hopefully experienced enough to stand a chance against the competition.”</p><p>Kiawe nodded. The firelight lit his face all striated and weird, like he was a fire and ghost type like Marowak. “So you’re saying the gym leader will be trying their best to give me a challenge to overcome?”</p><p>“Yep!” said Ash. “And if you do something really impressive or that shows you figured it out in the battle, sometimes they’ll give you a badge even if you didn’t win, because the important part is that you learned.”</p><p>“Then I’ll surmount the mountain of these challenges that face me!” announced Kiawe. “And I’ll show them all the fire of my determination to win and grow!”</p><p>“Yeah, that’s it!” said Ash. “I bet your gym battles are gonna be totally awesome!”</p><p>“You can count on it!”</p><p> </p><p>Team Rocket bothered them a few times through the next few days, and in between shouting at them and making them blast off, Ash managed to gather that they had no idea what they were doing back in Kanto. Which wasn’t that much of a surprise, because they never seemed to have any idea what they were doing ever, but Ash was pretty sure they’d had missions whenever they ended up in a new region at the same time as him. </p><p>Then he shrugged. It really wasn’t his business what they got up to, unless they started hurting people. And he knew they probably wouldn’t <em>really</em> mess with people unless they knew Ash was in the area, and they knew he wouldn’t really start looking for them unless they revealed themselves. Not that he could find them anyway, they were really good at disguises! But. It was a weird sort-of-arrangement, but it worked well enough, even if they’d never actually talked about it.</p><p>So Ash wasn’t actually that surprised, afterward, that it’d been Team Rocket who were running the egg hatching assistance station (or whatever they were calling it, he couldn’t remember) outside Pewter City. There’d been a whole scuffle there, because Kiawe didn’t want to let his egg out of his sight but Team Rocket were really insistent that they could do a better job helping raise it to be hatched than he could on his own, and then Kiawe had taken it as a challenge, and then the booth had blown up because of Inferno Overdrive and they’d had to go give the eggs back to everyone in Pewter City they’d been stolen from. It had taken a long time! So Ash was really tired when they finally made it to Pewter Gym, after stopping by the pokemon center of course.</p><p>It was Kiawe who knocked on the door this time, and Marowak with its club. There were a few seconds of waiting, and then Forrest opened the door. He was a bit taller than Ash remembered him being, and he was standing all confident. That was good. Ash had almost forgotten it was Forrest who was the gym leader now, instead of Brock or his dad or his mom, but he thought Forrest was better at it than any of them because he actually wanted to be there. </p><p>“Welcome to the Pewter Gym, challengers!” announced Forrest. Steelix peeked into the room through the entryway. Ash wondered if Forrest still used it in gym battles. He was a lot more interested in actually being a rock-type trainer than Brock’d ever been, but Onix had evolved into Steelix while it was with Forrest, so Ash had no idea. “Oh, it’s Ash.” He turned his head and shouted at somewhere behind him. “Brock! Ash is here, like you said!”</p><p>“And I’m Kiawe, and this is Marowak!” announced Kiawe. Marowak added its own input.</p><p>“Right, sorry, hello to you two as well,” said Forrest. “I’m the Pewter City gym leader, Forrest!”</p><p>Kiawe turned to Ash. “Brock’s not the gym leader?”</p><p>“He used to be!” said Ash. “But now it’s Forrest, ‘cause Brock’s in school for being a doctor!”</p><p>“Oh, right,” said Kiawe. Apparently he’d forgotten too!</p><p>“Yeah, he’s my big brother!” said Forrest. He leaned forward and whispered loudly. “I’m a better gym leader than him, though. He even said it!”</p><p>Kiawe made his conflicted face. “Last time we battled, Brock beat me. So I wanted to win the rematch…” </p><p>“Maro marowak!” cut in Marowak.</p><p>“But above all I love a challenge!” continued Kiawe. “And I want to earn the Boulder Badge properly.”</p><p>“Then I’ll be glad to give you that challenge!” said Forrest. “How many badges do you have so far?”</p><p>“This will be my first!”</p><p>Ash smiled. It was so weird watching someone else challenge a gym, but he thought he kinda liked it. Obviously he was also gonna challenge Forrest afterward, but it was so cool seeing his friend try something that Ash had been doing for ages and ages now, and be excited about it. He’d never traveled together with someone who was also doing the gym challenge, except for the bits and pieces in Unova where Bianca had joined him and Iris and Cilan for a bit, and it was so <em>exciting</em> to try, because he knew he could learn so much from Kiawe, and he thought maybe he could help Kiawe too. And he knew he’d get to watch some <em>totally</em> awesome battles, too!</p><p>Forrest chattered as he walked backwards towards the battlefield, telling Ash all about what his family had been up to since they’d last met. Apparently a bunch of his younger siblings had gotten old enough and left on their own journeys, and Forrest himself had gone on a brief tour of Johto one month when Brock was home from school, but he’d liked the gym better, really! He was a homebody at heart — which Kiawe nodded at, very enthusiastically, and said, “Me, as well.” — and he was super excited to be a gym leader for the rest of his life.</p><p>And then Brock was there. Ash stopped listening to Forrest and charged at him, leaping into a hug, and Pikachu jumped off his shoulder to say hi too. It was always so good to see Brock. There was nothing like his hugs, or his food, or the way he looked at Ash with a kind of warmness Ash had never seen from anyone else. </p><p>“Ash!” he said, wrapping his arms right around Ash and letting Pikachu climb on his head. “Professor Oak called ahead and said you’d be here, so I made sure my weekend was free to see you.”</p><p>“Alola, it’s good to see you too, Brock,” said Ash, into his shirt. “I missed you! Did you see the Manalo Conference, did you?”</p><p>Brock laughed. “Of course I watched it. Remember, I called you right after? No way I’d miss you in a League, Ash.” He ruffled Ash’s hair, and Ash didn’t even try to stop him. “They only showed the finals on tv here, but I had my roommate figure out something called a VPN? I don’t know, he’s the techie, not me. But you were amazing!” He lifted his head a little. “And you too, Kiawe! I’m proud of you both!” </p><p>“Thanks, Brock!” said Ash. </p><p>Kiawe muttered something that was probably also a thank-you. Ash guessed he was probably blushing.</p><p>Then Forrest started discussing something with Kiawe about how the gym battle was supposed to work, and Brock untangled himself from Ash, said hi to all Ash’s pokemon, and then tugged Ash up to the spectators’ balcony. </p><p>“Ash,” he said, leaning on the railing. “You’re planning on entering the Kanto League, aren’t you?”</p><p>Ash looked around the gym. He’d probably come here the most out of any gym ever except maybe Clemont’s gym, and it always looked a bit different every time he saw it. He thought maybe the arrangement of sticky-up ground and rocks on the battlefield was different than last time he’d seen it, which made sense because it probably got destroyed in gym battles all the time. There were lots of good little surfaces and jumping-off points with the way it was now, and a bunch of hiding places for small enough pokemon too. He was so excited to see how Kiawe used it! And then to battle on it himself! He turned to Brock. “Yeah, ‘course I am!”</p><p>Brock sighed. “I thought you might say that.” He put a hand on Ash’s shoulder. “Ash, you’re the Champion of Alola now.” </p><p>Ash nodded. “Yeah?”</p><p>“Have you thought at all about what that means?”</p><p>“Huh?” said Ash. Brock looked at him the way people looked at him whenever he wasn’t getting something, except it was softer and nicer than most of those people were because it was Brock. “It means I won?”</p><p>“Ash.” Brock sighed, and then opened his mouth and closed it a few times as he figured out what to say. Lycanroc butted up against Ash’s leg, so Ash scratched it around the neck where the rocks were while he waited. “That would be the case if you’d just won the Manalo Conference.” He tipped his head back. “But you’re the Champion, not just of the Conference but of the whole region. Normally you’d have to fight the Elite Four and the reigning Champion to get the title you have.”</p><p>Ash knew that. He hadn’t really thought about it, because it made him feel kinda weird to have the title but not have earned it the way he would have had to have earned it in a League that wasn’t new, but he knew it. Alola, and Professor Kukui, and the kahuna, they all seemed to think it was totally fine that he was the Champion of their region just from winning the Conference and fighting Professor Kukui and Tapu Koko. Ash trusted them about that. </p><p>And they’d apparently managed to convinced Mr Goodshow and the rest of the League people that it was appropriate. Ash had been there for the call where Professor Kukui and Kahuna Olivia had had a huge argument with some of the people on the other end about whether a battle against Tapu Koko was a proper test for the new Champion even though Professor Kukui was still trying to get an Elite Four put together. There’d been something about how if he’d been fighting a better-known legendary there wouldn’t be any issue at all, and then Lance — who was there for some reason — pointed out that he <em>had</em> beat a darkrai and tied with a latios in the Sinnoh League a few years back, which was really nice of him but Ash didn’t see how it was relevant. Then people had started shouting at each other and Professor Kukui had told Ash to go train outside and Ash had figured maybe since they were arguing about him, technically, if he was gone they’d argue less, so he’d left.</p><p>But apparently Professor Kukui and the kahuna had won, which Ash thought was probably a good thing. If Tapu Koko wanted to be the one to test Alola’s new champion, then that was alright. He’d spent enough time in Alola to understand that that was how they did things there, and that he really liked that that was how they did things there, listening to the Tapu and making sure everything they did was also what the pokemon wanted. Nowhere else Ash had ever been listened to pokemon properly like they did in Alola, and Ash thought the League should listen to the people and pokemon from Alola instead of the other way around. So it was good, that he was the Champion, because everyone in Alola seemed to want it.</p><p>But it was still really really weird to be technically in the same role as Lance and Cynthia and Diantha and the rest. Which meant Ash didn’t think about it very much, and which meant he made really really sure to not let it get to his head.</p><p>“Yeah,” he said. “I know. What’s it got to do with the Kanto League?”</p><p>“Everything.” Brock shut his eyes for a second. “Ash, as the Champion of Alola, you’re an official League representative, just like a gym leader is. Which means you can’t compete in any League events while you hold the title, no matter what region they’re in. It wouldn’t be fair to the other competitors.”</p><p>Ash made an O with his mouth. “What?” he said. “But that’s so unfair!”</p><p>“It would be more unfair to let you into the competitions,” said Brock. He put a hand on Ash’s shoulder. “It doesn’t mean you <em>can’t</em> fight people. Even gym leaders! But it won’t be for badges or entry into the League, because you’re already a Champion. You might get invited to battle the winners of tournaments, though, if that helps.”</p><p>Ash made a face. “I <em>guess</em>. But then what am I supposed to <em>do?</em>”</p><p>If it were anyone but Brock, he wouldn’t be asking that question, because they’d tell him all sorts of things that weren’t right at all, even if they sort of helped. But Brock had traveled with him so long, and knew him so well, that he knew Brock would give good advice. </p><p>“That’s up to you,” said Brock. “Most Champions seem to find something to do with their time — Lance has the G-Men, Diantha is a beautiful, <em>beautiful</em> actress, Steven Stone wanders around in caves — so you could get a hobby.” Ash made a face. “Yeah, I though you’d hate that.”</p><p>“I wanna keep battling,” said Ash. “And keep traveling, too. Alola’s beautiful, and amazing, and everything, and I love it there so much, but I haven’t seen <em>nearly</em> all the places and people and pokemon in the world! And I wanna keep battling strong trainers! It’s not fair that I can’t do the League.”</p><p>“Well, nothing says you have to stop battling.” Brock tapped his fingers on the railing. “Hey, after Kiawe’s gym battle, we can have a go at it. You against me, just like old times?”</p><p>Ash knew Brock was just trying to make him feel better, but that didn’t stop him grinning. “Yeah! That’d be awesome, thanks Brock!”</p><p>Brock chuckled. “I don’t like to see you sad.” He took his hand off Ash’s shoulder and tapped out a melody on the railing. “And in the meantime, I’ll keep thinking about options for your hobby.”</p><p>“I don’t <em>want</em> a hobby,” said Ash.</p><p>“Okay, your occupation.”</p><p>“That’s worse!”</p><p>“Hey, Ash!” Kiawe waved at them from the gym floor. “Can you take care of my egg for me? I don’t want it getting hurt during the battle!”</p><p>“Yeah, sure!” shouted Ash back. He jumped down from the balcony — ignoring Brock’s hand hitting his forehead — and landed hard. </p><p>Kiawe was full of energy, nearly bouncing, and Ash wished him luck as he scooped up the egg. </p><p>“I’ll be cheering for you! And good luck to you too, Forrest!” he said, and ran back up the stairs. Brock nearly knocked into him on his way down. Right, he was probably the battle judge. Too bad, Ash wanted to watch the match with him. </p><p>But at least he got to watch it with his pokemon, so that was alright. </p><p> </p><p>Kiawe was so ready for this. </p><p>His egg was safe with Ash, he was standing in the Pewter Gym, and he was about to have the most amazing battle Kanto had ever seen.</p><p>Forrest stood across from him, expression serious, and Ash was up on the balcony with his whole team — except Rowlet, who was probably still asleep, and Torterra, who would probably have made the balcony fall over —, and Brock was judging. Kiawe was obscurely glad Brock was involved in the battle at all, even if he didn’t get to fight him. He was really glad to be doing things properly, with the proper gym leader. But it would have been nice to win against Brock.</p><p>“This with be a two on two gym battle between Kiawe of Akala Island, the challenger, and Forrest of Pewter City, the gym leader. Only the challenger may substitute pokemon. The winner will be the last trainer whose pokemon are able to battle. Begin!”</p><p>“Go, Turtonator!” shouted Kiawe. Turtonator burst from its pokeball and stood tall and steady on the battlefield. </p><p>“Alright, Geodude!” said Forrest, and sent out one of those weirdly smooth kantonian geodude. “Kiawe, you take first move.”</p><p>“You’ll regret that! Turtonator, Flamethrower!”</p><p>“Geodude, Dig!”</p><p>As far as Kiawe could tell, Turtonator’s massive gout of flame missed completely as Geodude disappeared underground. Now where would it…</p><p>“Kiawe!” called Ash. “Remember, kantonian geodude is a ground type, not an electric type!”</p><p>“Right, thanks!” answered Kiawe. Ground type. That would explain— </p><p>Geodude spat itself out of the earth and sent Turtonator crashing to its stomach. </p><p>Distracted, distracted, he was getting distracted. “Turtonator,” he called, “can you still battle?”</p><p>“Turtonator!” said Turtonator, standing back up. It looked a little worse for wear. Ground types. Even with Turtonator’s amazing defense, they could do some damage for sure. </p><p>Geodude spun in the air. </p><p>“You’ll have to do better than that if you want the Boulder Badge, Kiawe,” taunted Forrest. “Geodude, use Sandstorm!”</p><p>A wind whipped up. The sand and dust and bits of rock blanketing the battleground floor swirled into the air. Kiawe squinted. Turtonator winced.</p><p>“Turtonator, stay strong!” shouted Kiawe. “Try using Flamethrower all around you, Geodude has to be somewhere!”</p><p>Turtonator tried, but Geodude was nowhere to be seen, and Kiawe realized too late it had probably used Dig again. </p><p>Too late, because at that moment it came flying out of the ground, knocking Turtonator right back over. </p><p>“Turtonator, Dragon Tail!”</p><p>Luckily, Turtonator heard in time. Unluckily, the Dragon Tail just barely grazed one of Geodude’s weirdly smooth arms. It tilted a little in the air but otherwise seemed no worse for wear, and Turtonator was still struggling to its feet. </p><p>But Kiawe was not going to lose! He was not!</p><p>“Turtonator, how are you doing?”</p><p>“Turtonator!” said Turtonator. “Turton<em>a</em>tor!”</p><p>“Awesome!” said Kiawe. The Sandstorm slowed, just a little. “Stay strong, I think I’ve got an idea!”</p><p>“Oh?” said Forrest. “Show me, then. Geodude, Dig, again!”</p><p>Geodude disappeared. Kiawe waited. Turtonator winced from the Sandstorm. Kiawe waited. Geodude burst out of the ground— </p><p>“Shell Trap!”</p><p>—and took Turtonator’s exploding spikes full to the face. </p><p>It fell. </p><p>“Geodude is unable to battle!” announced Brock. “Turtonator wins!”</p><p>The air cleared.</p><p>“Excellent work, Turtonator,” said Kiawe. Turtonator turned its head and grinned at him. This was looking good. Turtonator was still standing, and Forrest only had one pokemon left.</p><p>Kiawe was totally winning this!</p><p>“You can handle one weakness,” said Forrest. “But how about another? Go, Carbink!”</p><p>A fairy type. Interesting. Well, he could deal with that!</p><p>“Turtonator, use Flamethrower!”</p><p>Forrest looked unconcerned, and Carbink hovered silently. “Carbink, counter with Dazzling Gleam!”</p><p>The two attacks met in a swirl of pink and red, neutralizing each other. Kiawe let out a breath. Of course it wouldn’t be that easy! He was facing a gym leader!</p><p>“Carbink, use Rock Polish!”</p><p>Carbink sparkled. </p><p>And then dodged handily out of the way of Turtonator’s next two flamethrowers, sending light flying in dizzying prisms off its newly reflective gem. </p><p>“Dazzling Gleam,” said Forrest.</p><p>“Focus Blast!” called Kiawe.</p><p>But Carbink ducked the Focus Blast and  shot off a Dazzling Gleam that hit Turtonator dead-on, and, already barely standing because of Geodude’s three Digs, it fell right over. </p><p>Brock waited a moment, and then said, “Turtonator is unable to battle. Carbink wins!”</p><p>Kiawe recalled Turtonator in a flash of red light. “You did excellently,” he said, to the pokeball. “Now rest up for our next challenge. Marowak, you’re up!”</p><p>Marowak burst from its pokeball and slammed its club on the ground in challenge. “Marowak! Maro maro!”</p><p>“That’s the spirit!” said Forrest. “Alright, Carbink, use Rock Polish again!”</p><p>Carbink sparkled so much it was hard to look at. </p><p>“Marowak, stay alert!” warned Kiawe. “It’s fast! Try Bonemerang!”</p><p>Marowak sent its club flying, and almost managed to hit, except for a quick “Dodge!” from Forrest.</p><p>“Carbink, Rock Slide!”</p><p>“Marowak, dodge!”</p><p>Marowak managed to slip out of the way of the cascade of rocks. </p><p>“Again!”</p><p>“Dodge and use Bonemerang!”</p><p>This time, the Bonemerang hit, but Marowak got clipped by the rocks, too distracted by the throw to fully dodge. </p><p>“Great work, Marowak! Are you good to keep going?”</p><p>“Maro<em>wak</em>,” said Marowak, offended.</p><p>“Got it,” said Kiawe. “Try Bonemerang again!”</p><p>Carbink countered with Dazzling Gleam, which knocked the club off course. Marowak looked back and forth, uncertain.</p><p>Kiawe threw a fist in the air. “Don’t worry about it! Use Iron Head!”</p><p>“Marowak!” cried Marowak, abandoning its club for the moment and charging directly at Carbink. Carbink hardly had time to blink.</p><p>The Iron Head impacted.</p><p>Carbink was knocked halfway across the battlefield, and Marowak took the breather to run for its club. That was fine. </p><p>But then Carbink righted itself in the air, worse for wear but still ready to battle, and Kiawe decided enough was enough. </p><p>“Marowak!” he called. Marowak picked up its club and turned to face him, questioning. “It’s time for our ultimate move!” he announced, and began the poses. Marowak cheered and joined him, spinning its club. “Like Wela Volcano, become a raging fire and <em>burn!</em> Inferno Overdrive!”</p><p>The Inferno Overdrive seared across the battlefield, bright and more blinding than Carbink’s rock polish. </p><p>When it cleared, Carbink was prone on the ground.</p><p>“Carbink is unable to battle. Kiawe, the challenger, wins!”</p><p>“Yeah!” shouted Kiawe. “Marowak, we did it! We won our first gym battle!”</p><p>“Maro marowak!” agreed Marowak, throwing its club in the air. “Marowak!”</p><p>Forrest recalled Carbink and congratulated it, and then walked over to Kiawe. “Excellent work,” he said. “You’ve passed the tests I set before you with flying colors.”</p><p>Ash jumped off the balcony again, and this time his pokemon joined him, except for Pikachu, who grabbed Kiawe’s egg and carried it down the stairs. Incineroar landed nearly on top of Melmetal with a poof of flame. Kiawe made a mental note to thank Pikachu later.</p><p>“Kiawe, that was awesome!” said Ash. “You were amazing! The, the thing,” he waved his hands, “the timing, with Shell Trap. That was so cool! You and Turtonator and Marowak are so strong!”</p><p>“It was an excellent battle for sure,” said Brock. “You’ve both improved by leaps and bounds since last time I saw you. Ash, please stop jumping off the balcony.”</p><p>“Maybe,” said Ash. He crouched down. “Marowak, you’re so cool!”</p><p>“Maro marowak!” said Marowak, blushing at the praise. Kiawe grinned.</p><p>“<em>Guys,</em>” said Forrest. He waved a little case in front of their faces. “Guys, I wasn’t done!” </p><p>“Right, sorry Forrest,” laughed Ash. “Go ahead.”</p><p>“Kiawe,” said Forrest, opening the case and taking out what was inside. “I am pleased to present you with the Boulder Badge as a token of your victory here at the Pewter Gym.”</p><p>He held out his hand, and Kiawe picked up his very first badge and held it up to the light. The Boulder Badge! It looked nearly the same as the replicas Brock had given him and Sophocles on the field trips, but now he’d earned it for <em>real</em>. It was his! His very first Kanto gym badge!</p><p>“Yes!” he shouted. “And we’ll keep rising, like smoke from Wela Volcano into the sky!”</p><p>“That’s the spirit!” said Ash. “Yeah!”</p><p>“Incineroar!”</p><p>“I’m glad you enjoyed yourself,” said Forrest, smiling too. “I hope the rest of this journey you’re on proves as fruitful.”</p><p>“You’ll do great,” said Brock. “You and your pokemon are an excellent team.”</p><p>“Thank you,” said Kiawe, looking down at Marowak. “Now, Marowak, you did magnificently. Take a good rest.”</p><p>“Marowak!” said Marowak, and disappeared into its pokeball.</p><p>Ash reached over and petted Lycanroc, and then leaned back against Melmetal, and Pikachu handed Kiawe his egg. It was perfect and unharmed. Good. He knew he’d been right to trust Ash with it. “Thank you very much, Pikachu.”</p><p>“Now, Ash,” said Brock. “I believe I promised you a match?”</p><p>Aw, come on, why’d <em>Ash</em> get to battle Brock? </p><p>Kiawe <em>knew</em> why, but still. He wanted his rematch. Some other day, because Marowak and Turtonator were both exhausted, but he wanted it. He’d challenge Brock to a rematch tomorrow, maybe, if they were still in Pewter then. That was a good idea.</p><p>“Yeah!” said Ash. “Two on two?”</p><p>“Sure,” said Brock. “I know who I’m using, you?”</p><p>In answer, Ash looked up and backwards. “Melmetal, you interested?”</p><p>“Metal!” said Melmetal.</p><p>“Awesome! And for my second pokemon… It’s a surprise, you’ll be really surprised!” He looked at the rest of his team. “Promise you’ll get a battle next chance I get, everyone! You should watch us with Kiawe!”</p><p>“Good luck, Ash,” said Kiawe. “Beat him for me!”</p><p>“Haha, for sure!” </p><p>Ash waved them toward the stairs, and Kiawe followed Incineroar up. </p><p>He arrived at the balcony just as Ash and Brock were getting to their respective boxes, and settled in for a really exciting battle. The nice thing about watching Ash battle was that even if Kiawe thought what he was doing was totally different than what Kiawe would have done, he still always saw something totally amazing, or learned a trick he never would have thought of. And it was always so exciting, too! </p><p>Ash was one of the best battlers Kiawe had ever seen, and Kiawe didn’t begrudge him the title of Champion one bit, even though he wasn’t from Alola. And that was so hard to remember, sometimes, that he was from across the ocean. Ash fit in so well, back home. Kiawe missed it.</p><p>Forrest called start, acting as the judge, and Ash gestured Melmetal onto the field while Brock sent out a very excited Marshtomp. </p><p>The battle moved quickly after that. Marshtomp used its smaller size to its advantage — it was clear Melmetal still wasn’t quite used to being as big as it was — but Brock was obviously at the disadvantage in terms of skill. Not that he was unskilled, exactly, and Ash wasn’t dealing with an easy victory or anything, but he was obviously rustier than Ash, less practiced. Which made sense. He wasn’t a gym leader anymore, and he spent most of his time studying, not training. But it was still amazing, how Kiawe hadn’t noticed any of these things when <em>he’d</em> fought Brock. They were only apparent when he was facing Ash.</p><p>Eventually Ash pulled off some kind of feint with a Thunderbolt and then Double Iron Bash that left Marshtomp unable to battle, and Brock sent out a forretress.</p><p>Ash recalled Melmetal — who was looking kind of battered and generally very muddy — and sent out Torterra.</p><p>“Torterra!” said Brock. He grinned and ran onto the battlefield to give it a scratch behind the head, where its shell started. “It’s good to see you again!”</p><p>“Terra,” said Torterra. It gestured with its head, and Brock wandered back to his trainer box. “Torterra terra.”</p><p>“Sure, I’ll give you a good fight,” said Brock. “Ash, this is fantastic!”</p><p>“Isn’t it?” said Ash. “We’ve been practicing lots, so watch out!”</p><p>“Don’t worry, I will,” said Brock.</p><p>This battle was slower-paced but over just as fast. Forretress scattered spikes across the field, presumably just in case, and then used Rapid Spin to avoid a series of Energy Balls by bouncing them back around the room. Then it tried to charge at Torterra for a combination Rapid Spin and Tackle, but Torterra caught it in Leaf Storm and threw it up at the ceiling, and then tagged it with a final Energy Ball while it was midair to knock it out properly. </p><p>Ash and Torterra were so amazing together it was hard to remember they’d barely battled together since Ash was in Sinnoh, ages ago. Kiawe’d sparred against them a few times while they traveled, and it was always such a shock because no matter what he did he couldn’t really figure out what they’d do next. Even when he won, he couldn’t quite figure out why.</p><p>Brock laughed ruefully as he recalled Forretress and Forrest declared Ash the winner. “Good battle, Ash. Clearly I’m out of practice.”</p><p>“Aw, don’t say that,” said Ash. “You just gotta train a bit more!”</p><p>“Ash…” said Brock, and shook his head and smiled. “You just used me to get Melmetal used to kantonian battling and get back in synch with Torterra, don’t lie to me. I feel very used, I’ll have you know.”</p><p>“Wow, it really <em>has</em> been a long time since you’ve been a gym leader,” noted Forrest, voice dry. “The whole <em>point</em> of this place is battles with ulterior motives.”</p><p>“Hey, I didn’t have any of those,” complained Ash. “I <em>wanted</em> to battle <em>you!</em>”</p><p>Brock laughed again, and Kiawe missed the next bit of conversation from going down the stairs slowly to keep his egg safe, and then when he got to the bottom Brock was inviting them over for dinner at his parents’ house and Ash was accepting without waiting to see if Kiawe agreed.</p><p> </p><p>Dinner at Brock’s was <em>great</em>. Ash had missed Brock’s cooking more than he’d missed anything ever, because Brock’s cooking wasn’t as fancy as Cilan’s or anything but it was almost more <em>home</em> than Professor Kukui’s or his mom’s cooking. Brock’s food was warm and simple and good, and it made him comfortable like nothing in the world did, and Brock had let him hang around in the kitchen while he cooked to bother him about how all his pokemon were.</p><p>Kiawe, of course, immediately proclaimed Brock’s soup to be the greatest food outside Alola, which was a bit unfair to all the other food outside Alola because all he’d eaten since arriving was Ash’s attempts at cooking and whatever they were serving in the pokemon centers, but Brock was flattered anyway. So that was good.</p><p>Dinner conversation was fun, too. Brock’s mom and dad were there, but they didn’t really say much, because Brock’s youngest siblings were bothering Ash and Kiawe for travel stories the whole time and Ash was happy to keep them occupied and tell them all about the pokemon he’d seen. </p><p>Apparently, there was space for the two of them at the table mostly because four of Brock’s siblings were out on journeys, Salvadore and Yolanda in Hoenn and the Decolore Islands respectively and then Tommy and Cindy together in Galar. The two in Galar called in the middle of dinner because they messed up the time zones, so that paused things for a little, and then Brock got them all back on track with a quick recounting of the battles today. </p><p>And then <em>that</em> had Suzie wanting to see a battle, because apparently Forrest was much stingier than Brock had been with letting his siblings watch gym battles and she was almost trainer age. </p><p>Her question gave Kiawe the opening he needed to challenge Brock to the rematch he’d been wanting for <em>ages</em>, so after dinner they all wandered back to the gym battlefield and watched Kiawe and Marowak win a super exciting match against Brock and Chansey that Brock made Ash referee for some reason.</p><p>Kiawe was glowing for awhile after that, so Ash left him alone to be happy and talk to his pokemon, and found Brock sitting on the steps outside the gym.</p><p>“Hey, Ash,” Brock said, looking up. Most of Ash’s pokemon had put themselves back in their pokeballs, so it was just Pikachu on his shoulder and Lycanroc wandering around sleepily at his heels, exhausted after an evening being of fawned over by the twins, who loved rock types as much as Forrest and Brock’s dad. “Thought anymore about your hobby?”</p><p>Ash made a face. “No, ‘cause I don’t <em>want</em> one.”</p><p>He plonked himself down next to Brock and leaned into his side. Lycanroc came and lay down next to Ash, curled and warm, and Pikachu wandered over to Brock’s lap.<br/>Brock reached over and took off Ash’s cap to ruffle his hair. “Of course,” said Brock. “But I’ve been thinking, and I remembered what we did last time we were traveling around Kanto.”</p><p>“You mean the Battle Frontier?” The stars were hard to see in Pewter City ‘cause of all the lights, but there were a few here and there, and the North Star at Suicune’s crest was bright.</p><p>“That was fun, but I don’t wanna go find Scott again. He’d try to make me a Frontier Brain, anyway, and that would be totally boring.”</p><p>Brock stroked Pikachu’s tail, the way it liked it, so that it went all <em>chaa.</em> “Well, yeah, the Battle Frontier. But May was here to do contests, remember?” </p><p>“Yeah?” said Ash. He looked at Brock.</p><p>“Ash, I watched you battle me today, and that’s what made me think of it. The combination moves you pulled? You would be <em>amazing</em> in the contest circuit.” Brock put a hand on Ash’s leg. His face was shadowed by the night and the light spilling around the gym from his house, behind it. “I know you adapted Counter-Shield from Dawn’s contest battling in the first place, but that basically just proves my point.”</p><p>“Me, be a coordinator?” Ash blinked and made a face and then thought for a second. “I mean, I guess I could, but they were just never really my thing. I like an all-out battle, you know?”</p><p>“I do know,” said Brock. He paused for a bit. Ash tried to make out more stars, but it didn’t really work, and anyway he had no memory for proper constellations. That was more of a Clemont thing. Or a Lana thing. “But the contest circuit will give you something to do while you figure out what’s next for you, and I do think you’ll learn a lot from it. And who knows? You might even win the Grand Festival!”</p><p>“You really think so?” Ash smiled, and leaned against Brock a little more. “That’d be pretty cool, I guess. What d’you think, Pikachu?”</p><p>“Pikaa…” said Pikachu. Which was mostly unhelpful, but that was alright because it wasn’t a <em>no</em> and obviously Pikachu was having a really nice time getting scratched by Brock.</p><p>“And next time you see May or Dawn,” added Brock, “you’ll be able to give them a proper contest battle!”</p><p>“Mm,” said Ash. It was kind of cold and windy out, he was realizing. He had his jacket, but Brock had to be cold. He let his mind wander. “I wonder what I’d do for appeals…”</p><p>“You’re heading back to Viridian next, right?” said Brock, after a bit of thinking time. “If I’m remembering right, their first contest of the season is next week. You’ll definitely be able to make it in time for registration as long as you don’t end up in Johto by accident.”</p><p>“Hey!” said Ash. “But… that actually sounds pretty cool, I think. You’re right, I could learn a lot. It would be a challenge! Yeah!” He threw a fist in the air. “I’m gonna be Top Coordinator!”</p><p>“Glad to hear it,” said Brock.</p><p>Ash leaned over and tapped Lycanroc on the head. “Hey, Lycanroc, wanna do my first contest appeal with me? I’ve got a bunch of ideas already!”</p><p>“Roc!” barked Lycanroc, and Ash grinned.</p><p> </p><p>“So…” whispered Jessie, cloaked in deep shadow. “The Twerp thinks he can win the Grand Festival. As if!” She stood up. Light glimmered off her jewels and her shining, perfect hair. “He won’t win a single ribbon, not when I, Jessamara, Queen of the Contest Scene, Empress of Enchantment, Most Celebrated Actress in the World— not when when <em>I</em> am his opponent!”</p><p>“Oh, <em>no</em>,” said James. He tugged on her arm. “Jessie, focus! The Twerps’ll see us!”</p><p>“So what!” said Jessie. “I’ll dazzle them with my beauty and they’ll <em>hand over</em> the gym pokemon in awe!”</p><p>“When has <em>that</em> ever worked?” James muttered. “Jessie, you’re blinding me.”</p><p>“Where’d she even <em>find</em> a spotlight?” wondered Meowth.</p><p>“Beats me.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>fun and exciting fact about me: i love contests more than literally anything else in pokeani and have been waiting for the day i can write ash doing them for like ever. get ready because this fic is gonna be CONTEST CITY soon</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Viridian City (Again)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>contest contest contest contessssst</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Kiawe sat on the ground, egg in his lap, soaking in the morning sun. They’d get up and move soon, but Ash had wanted a few extra minutes to talk to Lycanroc about their appeal plans for the contest in Viridian City because he’d had an idea during the night, so Kiawe was taking the extra time to make sure his egg was perfect and unharmed.</p><p>Torterra and Turtonator, meanwhile, were having some kind of standoff about whose defenses were better, arbitrated by Incineroar, who mostly looked like it wanted to fight them. Kiawe thought that was probably because its usual sparring partner was whispering with Ash and occasionally shooting rocks in the air, but he wasn’t gonna say anything. Rowlet was asleep, of course, face in its bowl of food, and Marowak was playing a game Kiawe had mentally nicknamed “please don’t set the forest on fire” which involved setting its club on fire and using Bonemerang right above the grasses and bushes. Pikachu was trying to get it to stop.</p><p>And Kiawe was watching his egg, which meant he saw the moment it started to glow.</p><p>At first, he thought it must just be the sun sending color and light streaking across the surface — which was of course polished so brightly it worked as a mirror — but then the glow pulsed, and he gasped.</p><p>Ash looked up from whispering and his eyes widened and he said “Oh! It’s gonna hatch!” and Pikachu said “Pi-pikachu!” and they all ran over, except Rowlet of course. </p><p>It took awhile longer after that for it to happen. Ash said it was at least an hour, but it totally didn’t feel that long before the egg started shaking, and then shaking more, and then cracking, and then there was a brilliant light and Kiawe was covered in bits of eggshell and there was a very small litten mewling in his lap.</p><p>Kiawe’s eyes welled up. </p><p>Before he knew it, he was crying, massive tears that fell on Litten’s perfect little head and made it look up with its perfect little eyes and say, with its perfect little voice, “Lit!”</p><p>Kiawe knew, in that moment, that he would never again in his whole life see anything as perfect or as beautiful as this perfect, beautiful, tiny little litten. </p><p>He picked it up, and held it up, and looked at it with tear-filled eyes, and smiled and smiled at this tiny piece of Alola so unexpectedly given to him deep in this foreign region, this perfect creature, this beautiful pokemon whom he would cherish for his whole life and after, this— It was so <em>small</em>.</p><p>“Ash,” he said, finally, choked up. “Ash, look at my litten! Look at Litten!”</p><p>“Litten!” said Litten, from his hands, looking at him, and Kiawe started crying again.</p><p>“Congratulations, Kiawe!” said Ash. “I’m so happy for you both! So awesome! A litten!”</p><p>“Look!” said Kiawe again. “Look, look! It’s perfect! It’s so <em>small</em>!”</p><p>“I’m looking!” said Ash. “It’s really cute!”</p><p>“Yeah! It is!” said Kiawe. “It’s <em>perfect</em>. Aren’t you, Litten? You’re perfect!” He smiled. Litten mewled. “Turtonator, Marowak, come meet you new little sibling!”</p><p>He held it up, unwilling to let it go, and Turtonator and Marowak introduced themselves. Only, when Marowak tried, it was too enthusiastic, and Litten ducked its head right back into Kiawe’s lap. </p><p>So they sat there for the next few hours, slowly coaxing Litten out from hiding to meet each of the pokemon in turn, and Kiawe spent the whole time marveling at its existence. Its tail was perfect, and its fur was so soft, and its face was so small, and every time he thought he was done crying over how perfect it was it would say “Lit!” and he would start again.</p><p>Incineroar introduced itself last, tentative, and Litten looked up and up and up at it and Kiawe swore its eyes sparked.</p><p>“You wanna be that big too, someday?” said Ash. </p><p>“I’m sure you will be!” said Kiawe. “You’ll get big and strong and amazing! Count on it!”</p><p>Litten purred, and Kiawe melted all over again.</p><p> </p><p>They had to rush, the next two days, because the Viridian City contest was happening and they’d lost a day to Litten’s hatching and then another to Kiawe teaching Litten how to use Scratch properly, which had turned into a group effort with Incineroar and Ash and Pikachu too. </p><p>Not that Ash had any problem with the delays. Just looking at how Kiawe lit up like the sun whenever he looked down at Litten in his arms made it worth it, and Incineroar was so worried whenever Litten looked sad, which was really sweet. Ash had forgotten, a little, how amazing it was to watch a pokemon hatch and help raise it all the way from the egg. He hadn’t gotten a chance to do that in Alola. It always made it him feel so warm and needed and happy.</p><p>But they made it to Viridian City on time after all, and waved to Nurse Joy as they walked into the pokemon center. She waved back, and Kiawe asked her to please take a look at Litten, look, it hatched from the egg he had her look at last time, isn’t it perfect! and Nurse Joy said she’d do her best.</p><p>Ash called Max first, this time. Professor Oak could wait, and they’d call Professor Kukui when Litten was back from its checkup, so Max was the last person Ash owed a call to. And Kiawe hadn’t met him yet! Which they had to fix. Calls with Max had become a regular part of Ash’s life since Max had gotten all annoyed at him over the videophone in Kalos about being impossible to find and made Ash feel all guilty. </p><p>Unsurprisingly, Max was super annoyed at Ash for not calling for two weeks. To get off the topic — “Sorry Max, I got distracted! I got to battle Agatha again! Oh, and Brock says hi!” — Ash introduced Kiawe, who was being kind of awkward. Kirlia waved from Max’s shoulder.</p><p>“Any interesting challengers?” asked Ash, when they were done catching up on who Kiawe and Max and Kirlia were, and that Kiawe had hatched a litten.</p><p>“Not since you last called, really,” said Max. He was with Cilan at his gym, had been since he finished his journey in Hoenn and Cilan had invited him to be his and his brothers’ apprentice in being a gym leader, so “an interesting challenger” meant someone Cilan or Cress or Chili battled, or it meant someone Max battled. He’d been getting to battle more and more of the challengers, lately. There was something about a license, or something? Ash hadn’t really followed it, but he was happy for Max. “There was someone with this <em>awesome</em> ponyta from Galar, though! Did you know the ponyta over there are psychic types?”</p><p>“<em>Really?</em>” said Ash.</p><p>“Whoa…” said Kiawe.</p><p>“Yeah!” said Max. “So that was pretty cool. But they wanted to challenge Cress, so I didn’t get a chance to battle it.”</p><p>“Too bad…” said Ash. “Maybe you’ll meet another one someday!”</p><p>“I hope so,” said Max. “That’d be pretty cool. What about you? You’re in Kanto again, right? What’s your friend from Alola doing there?”</p><p>Ash gestured at Kiawe. “He’s doing the gym circuit! It’s totally awesome, he already won a badge!”</p><p>“Whoa, amazing!” said Max. “Which one?”</p><p>Kiawe pulled the badge case Brock had given him out of his pocket. “Boulder Badge.”</p><p>“Hey, cool!” said Max. He adjusted his glasses. “What about you, Ash? You already have badges in Kanto, so…”</p><p>Ash puffed out a cheek. “Brock said I can’t enter the League ‘cause I’m already a Champion,” he grumbled. “It’s so not fair!”</p><p>Max tilted his head. Kirlia said something to him telepathically, probably, and he giggled. “No, I think it’s definitely fair. You’d beat everyone!”</p><p>“We-<em>ell</em>, I dunno if I’d go <em>that</em> far,” said Ash. He waved a hand, and leaned forward towards the screen. “So guess what I’m doing instead!”</p><p>“What, the Battle Frontier again?”</p><p>“No, contests!”</p><p>Max blinked. “Huh,” he said. “Yeah, I can see it.” Then he blinked. “Aw man, I left Duosion with the kettle, it’s gonna totally freak out when the water’s boiled! Ash, you better call back and tell me how the contest goes! Nice to meet you Kiawe! Bye!” </p><p>The screen flickered dark. </p><p>Ash and Kiawe looked at each other, and shrugged. “Yeah, that’s Max,” said Ash.</p><p>“He seems… interesting,” said Kiawe.</p><p>“Yeah, he’s really cool! We haven’t gotten the chance to have a battle together since he became a trainer, but he loves psychic types and his big sister does contests! She’s become Top Coordinator <em>twice</em>, she’s awesome, and her pokemon are super amazing too!”</p><p>Kiawe nodded. “I’d like to meet them someday. Have a battle.”</p><p>“You bet!” said Ash. </p><p>Then they called Professor Oak, to keep him updated, and Tracey was there so Kiawe got introduced to him for the first time because Tracey’d been away when they had the field trip, and Muk was also there, and Ash was starting to tell Kiawe all about Muk when the chime for them to collect their pokemon rang and they hung up.</p><p>They introduced Professor Kukui and his Incineroar and Professor Burnet to Litten after that and told him all about Kiawe’s badge and Ash’s decision to try out the contest circuit, and had a nice conversation about what Professor Kukui was teaching his new class after that, and it felt almost like being at home again. Either one of his homes.</p><p>It was really nice, and him and Kiawe were both smiling super huge after.</p><p>Kiawe called his family, then, and Ash wandered off to go practice his appeal with Lycanroc in the pokemon center’s battlefield. The contest was tomorrow. </p><p>Now that Ash was thinking about it, he really, really couldn’t wait.</p><p> </p><p>They found out where the contest hall was from Nurse Joy, and ended up racing again to get there. Kiawe won even though he was carrying Litten the whole time, but only because Ash tripped and hit his face three feet from the finish line. And it was all in good fun anyway, so Kiawe helped him right up after. Also Lycanroc was the real winner, because it got there <em>way</em> faster than Ash <em>or</em> Kiawe. </p><p>The contest hall was pretty much like he’d remembered Kanto contest halls to be, a big building with a reception area in the lobby where you could register for the contest and get a contest pass and whatever. There was a small line at the registration booth, so Ash bounced as he waited his turn and watched Kiawe pet Litten next to him. Marowak was getting kind of jealous of Litten. He hoped Kiawe was noticing, hopefully the gym battle would smooth that out a little.</p><p>Then it was his turn, and the receptionist said, “Do you have a Kanto contest pass?”</p><p>“Nope!” said Ash. The receptionist glanced around at him having Pikachu out and Kiawe with Marowak and then Litten in his arms and wrinkled her nose a little. Probably she was one of those contesty sort of people who thought that keeping your pokemon in its pokeball all the time was the best thing for keeping it in top condition. Which wasn’t wrong, technically, but also, Ash didn’t think those people were right. Plus she wasn’t even seeing his full team, because he wanted Lycanroc and whoever he decided on for the battle round to be a surprise. “This is my first real contest!”</p><p>“A rookie, huh?” said the receptionist. Kiawe snorted next to him, which was a little rude. She wasn’t wrong! He was a rookie to contests, for sure! The Wallace Cup that one time didn’t count, ‘cause he was just doing it for Buizel. “Alright, hand over your identification, and I’ll get you a contest pass, a ribbon case, and some ball capsules and seals to start you off.” </p><p>He handed her his pokedex, and she scanned it and then handed it back, then rummaged around for the other stuff she was supposed to give him.</p><p>“Do you need a tutorial on how to use seals?” She glanced up and handed him the stuff, the contest pass plopped on top of everything else. “You probably do, don’t you.”</p><p>“I wouldn’t mind!” said Ash. Technically he knew how to use them, but it’d been awhile! “I didn’t know seals were a thing in Kanto contests now?”</p><p>“You <em>are</em> behind the times,” said the receptionist. “The Pokemon Activities Committee changed the rules to allowed them in our contests awhile back. They’re more trouble than they’re worth, if you ask me, but the judges like them. Oh, right, tutorial. Just cover the pokeball with the capsule and put the seal over the latch part of the pokeball, easy as pie.” She typed something. “Okay, you’re registered for the Viridian City contest! Good luck!”</p><p>She waved them away and started talking to the next person in line. </p><p>“There’s a lot of people here!” said Ash.</p><p>Litten mewled shy agreement from Kiawe’s arms, hiding its face against his skin. </p><p>“There are,” said Kiawe. “And so few of them have pokemon with them.”</p><p>Ash looked around again. Kiawe was right, of course. There were a bunch of hopeful coordinators scattered around and waiting in line, and a bunch of spectators loitering until the audience doors opened, and most of them didn’t have a single pokemon out with them. It wasn’t something he woulda noticed on his own, because it’s how things were most places he went, but it was so weird and unsettling after Alola. It made him want to send out his whole team and wake up Rowlet just to fill the room.</p><p>Instead, though, he said his goodbyes to Kiawe and headed backstage.</p><p>There were a bunch of coordinators back here, too. There was a girl with a cherubi and a bounsweet hanging out with her, which was pretty neat, and there was another girl leaning on a durant and making gestures with her hands, and a boy with a marill that had a bow by its ear and a pair of kids with matching shuppet and— Apparently Viridian’s contests were pretty big! It was exciting! And it was weird, also, being backstage for a contest he’d be in, instead of just sneaking back with the rest of the group to visit May or Dawn or Serena. </p><p>He glanced around. He didn’t know <em>anyone</em> here. It was weird, after being in Alola for so long.</p><p>He hoped Kiawe and Litten were doing alright. Actually… He glanced at Pikachu, on his shoulder. “D’you wanna go sit with Kiawe?”</p><p>Pikachu looked at him, tilting its head a little, then kinda thwacked him with its tail. “Chu, pikachu?”</p><p>“Nah, don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine! Go cheer for us!” He took off his backpack. “And take Rowlet with you.”</p><p>Pikachu frowned, but relented. “Chu-pi, pikapi!”</p><p>“You got it!” he said, loud enough a bunch of people turned to look at him. Oops. He threw his hand in the air. “We’ll win for sure!”</p><p>The people looking at him made a bunch of faces. Whatever. </p><p>Then Pikachu ran off and he sat down on a bench. No seals this time, he thought. He’d been trying really hard to remember everything May and Dawn and Serena had ever said about performing, and one of the things was that you weren’t supposed to change things up right before the show unless you’d planned for there to be a change. It hurt his brain a little, to be locked into a routine like they’d always said you had to, but he was giving it a try!</p><p>He’d just let out Lycanroc for a last-minute pep talk when someone shouted from the lobby so loud everyone turned around to listen.</p><p>“WHAT?” said the person. Her voice was high and a little bit shrill, which mostly meant it carried well. “What do you <em>mean</em> registration is closed? I’m <em>Jessamara, Queen of Contests</em>! How could you deny <em>me</em> entry!”</p><p>Ash felt kinda bad for the receptionist, all of a sudden, and he was gonna go out and try to help but the girl with the bounsweet and the cherubi walked up to him so he had to talk to her instead.</p><p>“You’re confident,” she said.</p><p>“Oh, hi!” he said. “I’m Ash from Pallet Town, and this is—” He glanced down and Lycanroc looked up at him. “Lycanroc!”</p><p>“Roc!” said Lycanroc.</p><p>“I haven’t seen you before,” said the girl. She was shorter than Ash by just a little, and she looked kinda like her pokemon, with green hair cut short and fluffy and a poofy fuchsia skirt. “Are you a new coordinator? Oh, sorry, I’m Clementine, from the Seven Grapefruit Islands. And here’s Cherubi and Bounsweet, my partners!”</p><p>“Rubi!” said Cherubi, from next to her. </p><p>“Sweet…” said Bounsweet, from her head. Ash was really glad Rowlet was with Kiawe.</p><p>“It’s awesome to meet you!” said Ash. “That’s in the Orange Islands, right?”</p><p>She blinked. “Hey, nobody’s ever heard of the Islands out here unless they’re really into grapefruits! That’s awesome!”</p><p>Ash laughed, and put his hand to the back of his head. “I visited once a long time ago! It was really cool! Is your bounsweet from home?”</p><p>“Yeah!” she said. Bounsweet bounced a little on her head. “How’d you know?”</p><p>“There’s none in Kanto,” said Ash. “My friend in Alola has one though! Well, it’s a tsareena now. They’re both so cool! Hey, we should meet up in the battle round!”</p><p>“I’ll win,” said Clementine. She patted Lycanroc on the head. “You’re new! How d’you know you’ll even make it past appeals?”</p><p>“It likes to be scratched around the rocks,” said Ash, showing her. Lycanroc rubbed its neck against his leg in response, and he grinned. “Like that! I’ll get past appeals ‘cause my pokemon are awesome!”</p><p>“Well,” she said, scratching where she was supposed to. “Lycanroc’s pretty cute! But my team is cuter.”</p><p>“Bounsweet.”</p><p>“You’re on!” said Ash.</p><p>“Cherubi!”</p><p>“Lycanroc!”</p><p>They grinned at each other. </p><p>The shouting out in the lobby finally stopped.</p><p>Lilian stepped out to thunderous applause from the crowd as the TV feeds of the stage flickered on.</p><p>“Welcome, one and all, to the Viridian City Pokemon Contest!” People clapped a bit more. “I hope you’re all ready for some fabulous performances by all our stunning coordinators and their talented pokemon! Let me introduce our judges: Here we have Mr Contesta, Chair of the Pokemon Activities Committee. Next to him we have the President of the Pokemon Fan Club, Mr Sukizo! And finally, your very own Viridian City Nurse Joy! Let’s give them all a hand.”</p><p>People clapped again. Ash tried to find Kiawe in the video feed, but it didn’t work. People in Viridian City sure liked their contests!</p><p>“Now…” continued Lilian. “We have forty-one contestants today angling for the eight slots in the battle round, so this is going to be one competitive series of appeals! Are you all ready?” The crowd cheered. “In that case: Let’s! Get! Busy!”</p><p>And the contest started.</p><p>Ash was in the late-middle on the list of appeals, so he watched on the screen as other coordinators took their turns. Someone with a shedinja did a whole interesting routine with Shadow Sneak and Protect, that girl with the durant did this really awesome showcase of her whole team with Beat Up, the kids with the matching shuppet went one after the other with completely different performance styles — which was totally fascinating — and then it was Clementine’s turn.</p><p>She strode out on stage confident and straight-backed, and then threw Cherubi’s pokeball in a shower of sparkly seal-glitter, smiling at the audience in a way Serena would find totally amazing if she were here. Cherubi’s appeal was short and totally beautiful, a dazzling sort of rainbow that it made with a combination of Magical Leaf, Grassy Terrain, and Sunny Day, and it got tons and tons of applause. Ash missed the next few after that, because he was busy congratulating her when she came back in.</p><p>She waved it off. “It was mostly Cherubi! I messed up a little, honestly. Nearly tripped on my way out!”</p><p>“Really?” said Ash. “You looked totally graceful!”</p><p>“Haha, thanks. Hey, you’re up after the next one!” She pointed at the scree.</p><p>“Whoa, I am! Thanks!”</p><p>“Good luck!” she said. “You said we’d meet in the battle round. I’ll be holding you to it!”</p><p>“Don’t worry about me!”</p><p>He recalled Lycanroc and rushed to the wings just in time to see a coordinator with a togepi get a staggered, awkward bout of polite applause. They walked off stage with dignity, hugging their partner, and brushed right past Ash without noticing him. </p><p>He turned to go after them, but then Lilian announced his name in the microphone and he remembered he had to go on stage, or he’d be disappointing Lycanroc. He’d go find the coordinator with the togepi after his appeal was done, he decided.</p><p>The stage was big. He was used to crowds, so this was fine, he told himself, even though this was a completely different sort of crowd from the one at a battle tournament and he didn’t have an opponent to play off of; it was just him and Lycanroc. But he was fine. He was. And Lycanroc was going to be amazing! </p><p>He walked to the center-back. </p><p>“Lycanroc! Let’s give them a show!” </p><p>Lycanroc leapt out of its thrown pokeball in a splash of red light and landed gracefully. </p><p>It looked back at him, questioning, so he took a deep breath and smiled his very best smile.</p><p>“Lycanroc!” he said. “Use Stone Edge!”</p><p>“Roc!” said Lycanroc, swinging its head. “Lycanroc!”</p><p>One big pale blue Stone Edge pillar grew in the center of the stage, like the ones Pancham used to make. Lilian said something about it, probably, but Ash couldn’t hear her all of a sudden. He couldn’t see her, either, or the judges or the audience, and he was realizing in that tunnel vision why coordinators and performers were so excited to be on stage: it was the same rush as getting in a really intense battle, but instead of testing yourself against someone else it was testing yourself against yourself.</p><p>“Awesome!” he said. “Use Accelerock!”</p><p>Exactly like they’d practiced, Lycanroc took off dashing around and up the pillar so fast it left a trail of light behind it in a spiral. </p><p>At the top, it stood proudly, orange and majestic against the pillar’s blue, and Ash fell in love all over again with the way it strode and moved and took up space.</p><p>“Now!” he said. “Bite!”</p><p>Lycanroc bit down on the top of the pillar, exactly like they’d practiced. And exactly like they’d practiced, it tore away a chunk of see-through blue Stone Edge pillar, and—</p><p>The foot it was bracing with slipped. For a moment, it was clinging to the top of the pillar with its forelegs, stone still clenched in its mouth, and Ash panicked. </p><p>What do—</p><p>“Lycanroc!” he shouted. “Use Counter!”</p><p>Lycanroc used Counter. The momentum shattered the pillar and propelled Lycanroc backwards, flying, out of control. </p><p>So it pulled its legs over its head and threw a neat backflip. Stuck the landing.</p><p>It looked back, questioning. Ash caught its eye and nodded, trying not to look too relieved. <em>Keep going.</em></p><p>So Lycanroc tossed the last bit of Stone Edge in the air and faced the ceiling and howled the end of the appeal.</p><p>There was a rush of noise, and Ash was aware of the audience again. They were applauding, and Lilian was saying something, and he scanned for Kiawe until he spotted him, center and a bit to the right, screaming like he did with Pikachu clapping from the top of his head. </p><p>“—very exciting appeal!” said Lilian. </p><p>Ash let out a deep breath, and recalled Lycanroc, and left the stage.</p><p> </p><p>Clementine was waiting for him. Cherubi was on her head this time, and Bounsweet was nowhere to be seen. “Hey, that was great for your first appeal!” she said. </p><p>Ash sent out Lycanroc to hug it properly and congratulate it. Then he stood back up and said, “Thanks! Me and Lycanroc worked really hard on it. Apparently not hard enough, though!”</p><p>“I dunno,” said Clementine. Cherubi hopped onto Lycanroc’s back, which Lycanroc tolerated with only a small helpless look in Ash’s direction. “The judges like a good recovery. And the audience wouldn’t have noticed, you covered pretty well.”</p><p>“You think?” said Ash. “Hey, did you see where the coordinator with the togepi who was right before me went? They looked upset, I wanted to see if I could help.”</p><p>Clementine made a sympathetic face. Lycanroc and Cherubi wandered off to go run around the room. “Yeah, you missed it,” said Clementine, “but they tried Metronome in their appeal and couldn’t work with the result.” She tilted her head to the side. “Bit of a gamble. I mean, people keep trying it, but just because someone can pull it off in the Grand Festival and win doesn’t mean it should start a <em>trend</em>, you know? The appeals are about showing the audience something you <em>practiced</em>.”</p><p>“It’s cool if you manage it, though!” said Ash. </p><p>“Oh, totally,” said Clementine. “Most people just can’t, you know? Or didn’t practice enough.”</p><p>“I guess,” said Ash. May could do it. “So where’d they go?”</p><p>Clementine pointed to a corner of the dressing room, where they were sitting with another kid, holding their togepi and laughing at something. “I wouldn’t worry, I think they’ve got a good friend.”</p><p>“Oh, that’s good then!” said Ash. Maybe he meddled too much, sometimes people said that, but he just wanted to see people be happy. Hopefully their other contests would go better! “So, who’re you using for the battle round?”</p><p>Clementine pointed in his face. “Hey, we’re meeting in the battle round, aren’t we? No <em>way</em> I’m telling you!”</p><p>“Okay, okay!” said Ash. “Then I won’t tell you either! You’ll just have to find out in person!”</p><p> </p><p>Kiawe was missing Ash. The appeals were pretty cool, and it was amazing to see trainers working so closely with their pokemon, but he’d been sitting in this seat for an hour now or something. And he didn’t like being surrounded by foreign people in this foreign country with his friend so far away. </p><p>The only thing that kept him from getting up and taking a walk after Ash had finally had his turn on stage was Litten, who was watching with the widest, most amazed eyes at all the sparkles and flashy moves. He could stay here for Litten.</p><p>Pikachu, meanwhile, was using Marowak and Ash’s backpack with Rowlet in it to weigh down the next seat over, and was watching the appeals from on top of Marowak’s head — and occasionally Kiawe’s head — with narrow, focused eyes. It was really taking this contest thing seriously. </p><p>Eventually, the last of the appeals finished up — a kid with a vulpix that knew will-o’-wisp — and there was a short break while the judges tallied up scores. </p><p>Litten wanted to stay sitting down, though, so Kiawe didn’t take a walk.</p><p>After another eternity, they were done, and the eight trainers who’d made it into the battle round appeared one by one on the scoreboard.</p><p>It was totally nerve-wracking. The first seven, each slowly, slowly flipping into images, were all people Kiawe didn’t know. He was squeezing Litten so much it squeaked at him by the time the last spot flipped and— </p><p>Showed Ash’s face.</p><p>What a <em>relief</em>! </p><p>Kiawe hadn’t doubted him, but <em>what</em> a relief!</p><p>“Pikachu, pikapi!” cheered Pikachu, next to him.</p><p>The battle round got started pretty soon after that, and <em>that</em> was a lot more interesting. Ash had explained how contest battles worked to Kiawe, the five minute time limit and the way you could win without winning as long as you were impressive enough to knock your opponent’s points down more than they’d knocked yours. Kiawe honestly hadn’t really understood how that could be fun, even though Ash had been all enthusiastic about the process. But he was getting it now, a little. It was all about cultivating your pokemon’s strengths and countering your opponents in a way that put you on top, which was really interesting to watch.</p><p>Ash was first, sending out Incineroar against a boy with a spearow the announcer called Justin. </p><p>Incineroar stood strong through an exaggerated Air Cutter that looked like a bunch of arrows, which lost both Ash and Justin points, and then charged forward and smashed into the spearow with a Flame Charge that knocked it right out of the air. There then was a quick series of Fire Fang, the spearow trying to take off, and then Fire Blast, and the spearow fell, knocked out.</p><p>“Well, that was quick!” said the announcer, as Ash congratulated Incineroar and left the stage. Lilian? Her name was Lilian, right. “Ash coming in right out of the gate with some remarkably aggressive tactics. I’m not certain that that was what our audience was expecting to see, but it sure was impressive! And next up we have Clementine facing off against Maura, both of whom made a fabulous showing in the appeals round with their grass-type pokemon!”</p><p>Clementine won the match on points, eventually, her bounsweet playing a mostly defensive game with perfectly timed Sweet Scent and Rapid Spin.</p><p>Then two more contestants, a Roland and a Teadora, battled it out with a gastly and a rampardos respectively until Teadora won with a final dazzling display of Hidden Power. After that, two kids, each with a duskull, faced off, until the one on the right won when then timer ran out. </p><p>The second round started. Teadora handily eliminated the duskull kid — Kiawe really couldn’t remember their name — and then it was Ash’s turn, facing off against Clementine. </p><p>“Told you we’d both make it!” he said, grinning and waving a little. Huh. He knew her? “Get ready!”</p><p>“I think this might make us rivals,” said Clementine. “Which means no way am I going easy on you!”</p><p>“I’d hate it if you did!”</p><p>“Incineroar, let’s give them a show!”</p><p>“Bounsweet, spotlight’s on you!”</p><p>Incineroar roared, and Bounsweet jumped back a little.</p><p>“Bounsweet, use Sweet Scent!”</p><p>From the corner of his eye, Kiawe caught Pikachu holding Ash’s backpack shut with its paws, just in case. </p><p>Incineroar wobbled a little. “Fire Blast!” called Ash. “Don’t get distracted!”</p><p>Incineroar used Fire Blast, and Bounsweet, charred, fell over, unable to battle. </p><p>Clementine rushed over, scooping up Bounsweet in her arms and rushing off stage. Ash just kind of stood there for a second, a bit confused, as Lilian talked about how un-contest-like his victories were. Then he shrugged, recalled Incineroar, and walked off stage. </p><p>The finals were soon after; there was a ten minute break for the trainers and pokemon to recover, and then Ash and Teadora made their way back onstage to face off for the Viridian Ribbon. </p><p>This battle lasted longer than the others. Teadora’s rampardos was obviously well-trained, and she battled unforgivingly, trading Fire Blast for perfectly sculpted Bulldoze and Flame Charge for Head Smash. But at the three minute mark, Incineroar managed to hit back with a nasty Revenge and knock it out. </p><p>Teadora nodded at Ash, composed, and said, “We’ll face off again in the future.” </p><p>“Sure!” said Ash. “Your rampardos is awesome!”</p><p>She nodded at that, said a few words to her rampardos’s pokeball, and left Ash hugging Incineroar on stage nearby a slightly flustered Lilian. </p><p>“And that leaves Ash from Pallet Town the winner of this Viridian City Pokemon Contest!” she managed eventually. Ash was looking at her and tilting his head a little. “Let’s give him a hand for his first Kanto ribbon!”</p><p>Kiawe clapped with the rest of the audience, and then looked down at Litten. Its eyes were wide, stunned and amazed. “<em>Liii</em>,” it said.</p><p>“You liked that, huh?” said Kiawe. </p><p>“Litten, lit!” It pointed at Incineroar, who was standing next to Ash as Lilian handed him his ribbon. “Litten!”</p><p>He nodded. “Incineroar is an excellent battler.”</p><p>“Lit!”</p><p>He glanced at Marowak, fidgeting with its club, and reached for Ash’s backpack. Rowlet had woken up for the first few battles and then immediately gone back to sleep, leaving Pikachu sighing. </p><p>Kiawe gestured towards the door with his chin. “Pikachu? Let’s go locate your trainer.”</p><p>“Chu-pika!” said Pikachu, and led the way out of the audience.</p><p> </p><p>They found Ash, Incineroar, and Lycanroc out in the lobby, waiting on a bench and looking oddly dejected for someone who had just won a competition. </p><p>“Oh, Kiawe!” he said, as Pikachu grabbed his backpack from Kiawe’s arm and dashed over to his shoulder. “Pikachu, everyone! It’s good to see you!”</p><p>“Congratulations,” said Kiawe. “Litten and I both thought you were all great!”</p><p>“Thanks!” said Ash. “Lycanroc and Incineroar were amazing.”</p><p>“Marowak,” protested Marowak. </p><p>“You did too, Marowak, sorry,” said Kiawe. “Hey, cheer up! We’ve got a gym battle later!”</p><p>“Marowak!”</p><p>“Yeah, awesome!” said Ash. “Today, right? We’re going right over to Agatha’s gym after this?”</p><p>Kiawe threw a fist in the air. “You bet! I can’t wait to win her badge. A real Elite Four member!”</p><p>“I bet you’ll be awesome! Hey, look at my ribbon!”</p><p>Kiawe looked at his ribbon. It was very nice, and very green. “Soon you’ll be looking at my Earth Badge!”</p><p>“Yeah!”</p><p> </p><p>Ash wandered over to the spectators’ side of the gym, trying his best to think about how awesome it was that Kiawe was going to be battling Agatha instead of how upset it was making him that Clementine hadn’t even said a word to him after their battle. </p><p>He knew he’d messed up. She’d been looking for something fun, a battle where they really got to get to know each other, and Ash had won in one move. </p><p>But it was a battle, right? You were supposed to go all-out. May won half her contests with knockouts, anyway. It wasn’t his fault they’d barely had a battle. It wasn’t, really.</p><p>It was getting harder and harder to convince himself of that. </p><p>He shook his whole body. Anyway! </p><p>Kiawe versus Agatha!</p><p>One of the gym trainers, a woman in a big poofy black dress Agatha had called Arabella, stood in the judge’s spot, swaying side to side a little as she waited for Agatha and Kiawe to be done talking so she could start the match. Ash leaned against Torterra and smiled. </p><p>It was always super amazing to watch Kiawe battle. He had so much passion! Him and his pokemon trusted each other so much, so they always battled super impressively! And now he was fighting <em>Agatha</em>! This was gonna be so cool!</p><p>“This two-on-two gym battle between Agatha, the gym leader, and Kiawe, the challenger, will now begin!” announced Arabella. “Only the gym leader may substitute pokemon, and the last trainer with pokemon remaining will win the match. Go!”</p><p>“Turtonator, I need your help!”</p><p>“Golbat, let’s go!”</p><p>Kiawe frowned. Right, Ash had forgotten she had a golbat! He wondered what her game was. Obviously it was totally okay for gym leaders to have pokemon that weren’t their type, otherwise Clemont would never have been able to fight Ash with Bunnelby, but usually they had some sort of intent with them. </p><p>“Go ahead,” said Agatha. </p><p>Kiawe’s face cleared. “An unexpected opponent just calls upon the fire in our hearts all the more! Turtonator! Start it off with Shell Smash!”</p><p>Turtonator used Shell Smash, shedding its defense for pure offense. Wow, Kiawe really was going all-out from the very beginning!</p><p>“Golbat, use Supersonic.”</p><p>“Turtonator, dodge!” </p><p>Turtonator scrambled out of the way of the sound waves, avoiding them just barely. Ash looked at Torterra and let out a breath. No wonder she was using Golbat! Her gym was probably all about attacks that were super hard to counter. </p><p>“Let’s end this quickly!” called Kiawe. “Turtonator, use Flamethrower!”</p><p>“Up!” said Agatha.</p><p>Golbat dodged the stream of flame as it blasted upwards, and then met it with a flurry of Air Slash that pushed the fire back towards Turtonator and landed a solid counter-hit.</p><p>“Turtonator, don’t let up! Flamethrower again!”</p><p>“Litten! Litten!” cheered Litten, from Incineroar’s arms.</p><p>Turtonator chased Golbat around the ceiling with Flamethrower, landing a few hits but mostly missing. Golbat was so speedy at dodging!</p><p>And then Agatha smiled, and Ash knew she had Kiawe exactly where she wanted him.</p><p>But Kiawe was still focused on Turtonator, trying to predict which way Golbat would dodge, so he didn’t notice.</p><p>“Leech Life!”</p><p>Golbat took a tight turn, zipped around the Flamethrower following it, and sank its fangs into Turtonator’s shoulder. </p><p>“No!” said Kiawe. Turtonator staggered. “Turtonator, while it’s there! Shell Trap!”</p><p>“Up!” said Agatha, and the Shell Trap exploded harmlessly in its wake.</p><p>Turtonator staggered. That Shell Smash from earlier was doing it no favors for sure, not if even speed wasn’t letting Turtonator reach Golbat. </p><p>“Terra, torterra,” noted Torterra. </p><p>Ash nodded. “Leaf Storm for sure, and it’s a good thing you know Synthesis, yeah?”</p><p>“Terra.” Torterra nodded. </p><p>Golbat dodged another Flamethrower and threw out a Supersonic that Turtonator, braced to direct all those Flamethrowers towards the ceiling, didn’t manage to dodge.</p><p>And then, while it was staggering around from the confusion and Kiawe was trying to get it to come to its senses, Golbat swooped in for a few final Leech Lifes.</p><p>“Turtonator is unable to battle!” announced Arabella. “Golbat wins!”</p><p>Kiawe frowned in frustration. He recalled Turtonator and told it good job and then stared at its pokeball for a second, thinking.</p><p>“Right!” he said, and looked up. His face was determined. “You may have beaten Turtonator, but we’re just getting warmed up!”</p><p>“Yeah!” cheered Ash. “Go Kiawe!”</p><p>“Pika pika!”</p><p>“Alright, Marowak!” said Kiawe. “It’s all up to you!”</p><p>“Maro maro maro!”</p><p>Agatha smiled. “Oh, your marowak! Excellent. I was <em>waiting</em> for this.”</p><p>“Well, you don’t have to wait any longer!” Kiawe threw his hand out. “Marowak, use Shadow Bone!”</p><p>Marowak leapt into the air, spinning its club, and set it on purple ghost-fire, smacking it into Golbat before Golbat could get away.</p><p>“Excellent, excellent,” said Agatha. “Golbat, Crunch.”</p><p>“Marowak, counter with Bonemerang!” Marowak threw its club. The attack wouldn’t have worked, since it was ground-type, but Kiawe was just using it to counter. So the bone landed right in Golbat’s mouth and took the Crunch in Marowak’s place. </p><p>“Hey, awesome!” said Ash. </p><p>“Thanks!” said Kiawe. “Marowak, Shadow Bone!”</p><p>“Marowak!” said Marowak, and then spun its hands like it was still holding the club, which lit the club on ghost-fire again even though it was stuck in Golbat’s mouth.</p><p>Huh. Ash hadn’t realized it could do that. He’d thought it needed to be holding the bone to start the attack, but apparently not. “That’s so cool, you guys!”</p><p>“Maro maro marowak!” said Marowak, and Golbat hit the ground. </p><p>For good measure, Marowak ran over and smacked it with Iron Head, and Arabella declared it out of the battle. </p><p>“Yeah!” cheered Kiawe. “Amazing, Marowak!”</p><p>“Excellent work indeed,” said Agatha. “Most impressive, young man. But it’s not over yet! Misdreavus, let’s go!”</p><p>Misdreavus burst out of its pokeball. “Misdreaaavus,” it said, and then noticed Marowak, who had recovered its club and was shaking it in threat. “Dreavus!”</p><p>“You ready, Marowak?” asked Kiawe. Marowak shook its club again. “Then use Shadow Bone!”</p><p>“Misdreavus, Psychic.” The Psychic caught Marowak midway through spinning its club and lifted it high in the air. “Your attacks have great power,” said Agatha to Kiawe, as Marowak struggled futile in the air. “But if they have a tell, anyone can swoop in before you initiate them and cut you off. Misdreavus, slam Marowak into the ground.”</p><p>Marowak hit the ground with a loud <em>smack</em>, and Kiawe winced visibly. “Marowak!” he called. “Can you still battle?”</p><p>“Maro…” said Marowak. It used its club as a support to stand back up. “Marowak!”</p><p>“Great!” said Kaiwe. “This is just the beginning!”</p><p>“Misdreavus, use Thunderbolt,” said Agatha.</p><p>Ash smiled.</p><p>“You know what to do!” said Kiawe. </p><p>“Maro!” said Marowak. It used Bonemerang, but instead of throwing it, it smacked the bone into the ground and crouched. </p><p>The Thunderbolt, flashing in the air, attracted itself to the bone instead of Marowak, and grounded itself in the ground-type energy. </p><p>Agatha blinked. “Oh, very clever! Excellent strategy, young man. And well-executed, Marowak.”</p><p>“Ash’s pikachu uses Thunderbolt all the time,” said Kiawe. “So we devised a strategy so that we could finally win some spars.”</p><p>“Yeah!” said Ash. “They’re awesome! We had to start using Iron Tail and stuff instead!”</p><p>Agatha chuckled. “Well, shall we continue?”</p><p>“Readier than a pyukumuku for the sea!”</p><p>“Marowak!”</p><p>“Misdreavus, use Shadow Ball!”</p><p>“Dodge, Marowak!”</p><p>Marowak zipped to the side, but Agatha kept up a steady barrage of Shadow Balls, sending clouds of dust flying up from where they impacted the battlefield when Marowak managed to dodge. </p><p>“Shadow Bone!” called Kiawe eventually. </p><p>Marowak spun its club— </p><p>And Agatha used the moment’s lead-up to land a Shadow Ball squarely on its chest. </p><p>Marowak stood, breathing hard. </p><p>Agatha tsked. “Don’t show your hand like that, young man.” </p><p>Kiawe frowned. “Fine! Bonemerang then!”</p><p>Marowak tossed the bone— </p><p>Misdreavus threw another Shadow Ball and faded out of the visible spectrum— </p><p>The Bonemerang missed— </p><p>The Shadow Ball knocked Marowak back, nearly over— </p><p>And Misdreavus staggered back into the visible spectrum, fighting off a light-blue aura.</p><p>“Whoa, that’s Cursed Body!” said Ash. </p><p>“Marowak!” shouted Kiawe. “Now’s your chance! Iron Head!”</p><p>Marowak jumped, smacked its head into Misdreavus, and knocked it right out of the air.</p><p>Marowak landed, breathing hard, leaning on its club. Misdreavus stayed down.</p><p>“Misdreavus is unable to battle!” said Arabella. “Kiawe and Marowak, the challengers, win!” </p><p>“Yes!” said Kiawe. He ran over and high-fived Marowak. “You were incredible! Take a good long rest. You deserve it.”</p><p>“Maro!” said Marowak. It recalled itself with one last smug glance at Agatha.</p><p>“That was so awesome!” said Ash, charging over. “You were so cool!”</p><p>“Pika pikachu!”</p><p>“Lit lit lit lit litten!” said Litten. It leapt out of Incineroar’s arms and clawed its way up Kiawe’s shorts until it could jump and cling to his hand. “Litten! Lit! Lit litten!”</p><p>Kiawe held it up in the air. “Thanks, Litten! I bet you can’t wait ‘till you’re big enough to be in gym battles too, right?”</p><p>“Litten!”</p><p>“When you know a few more moves, okay? We’ll all train really hard!”</p><p>“Litten! Lit!”</p><p>Agatha cleared her throat. Kiawe and Ash and Incineroar and Torterra and everyone else all jumped and turned around. </p><p>“That was was an excellent battle, young man,” she said. “You recovered well from your mistakes and made very good use of Marowak’s attacks.” Kiawe blushed. Agatha held out her badge. “I present you with the Earth Badge in recognition of your achievement.”</p><p>“Thank you very much,” said Kiawe. He was still blushing, and probably didn’t even realize his cheeks had gone red at all. He was like that. “Your pokemon are incredible!”</p><p>“I think so too,” said Agatha. “Good luck to the both of you on the rest of your journeys. Come back and challenge me anytime you like!”</p><p>“Thank you, Agatha.”</p><p>“Thanks, Agatha!”</p><p>“Pi-pikachu!”</p><p>“Oh, and Ash?” she added.</p><p>“Yeah?”</p><p>She leaned on her staff and looked him right in the eyes. “Remember: always try adapting to your new circumstances instead of making them adapt to you.”</p><p> </p><p>
  
</p><p>[<a href="https://sweetcandyholic.tumblr.com/post/635101836338184192">link</a>] [sketch page of clementine by my inimitable partner in crime connie fallingwish!]</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>me writing up bit character coordinators: haha and this one is named clementine and trains fruit pokemon <br/>me two days later: oh no i love with her. oh no. oh no i love her. oh no she’s all over my outline now. oh no<br/>so anyways yeah you’ll be seeing miss clementine of the seven grapefruit islands again. </p><p>secondly, it’s very important for you all to know that kiawe holds the egg/litten in his arms like misty holds togepi and dawn holds piplup</p><p>thirdly, re:the referenced drama of max hunting ash down through videophone calls in kalos and telling him to call more often, i did write that fic, it's <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/19718818">right here</a></p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Rota Kingdom</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The ground turned rockier and rockier as they headed north, all pebbly and steep. Ash had suggested Cerulean Gym for Kiawe’s next badge, mostly because he wanted to visit Misty, so they were on their way up past Mt Moon, veering around its northern side practically through the mountains instead of following the normal road because Kiawe had kept trying to walk towards the mountains and then they couldn’t really find the path after they lost it. Most of Ash’s team had decided to stay inside their pokeballs after Melmetal nearly fell when a cliff crumbled under its weight, so Ash was just left with Pikachu, Rowlet sleeping in his bag, and occasionally Lycanroc or Incineroar when they wanted some fresh air.</p><p>Now they were all sitting down for lunch — Iris’s various berry and herb and root recipes were really coming in handy when they didn’t have time for a whole entire campfire and someone in the group found something good to eat — and staring at Mt Moon’s looming face.</p><p>Pikachu was mediating something between Lycanroc and Marowak, Turtonator and Torterra were conferring in low voices, Rowlet was napping in Melmetal’s center hex while Melmetal soaked in the sun. And Incineroar was sitting with Ash, watching Kiawe feed Litten pitted cheri berries and talk to it about how amazing it was.</p><p>“It’s weird, isn’t it, Incineroar,” said Ash. Incineroar turned to look at him. Ash wiped berry juice off his hands onto his jacket. “To have someone look up to you, when ‘till then you’ve been doing all the looking up.”</p><p>“Cineroar,” agreed Incineroar. It absently made the Masked Royal’s <em>ENJOY!</em> gesture with an arm. “Incineroar…”</p><p>Ash waved a hand. “Nah, you’re totally just as cool as Incineroar! It thinks so too! Remember, our battle against Professor Kukui?”</p><p>“Cineroar, incineroar,” said Incineroar. It leaned back on its hands, looking at Litten again. “Incineroar.”</p><p>“I know,” said Ash, “I thought so too, first time I realized someone was looking up to me.” Ash gestured vaguely in what he thought might be the direction of Kalos. Then he looked over at Pikachu, who was done scolding Lycanroc and Marowak and had gone back to practicing adjustments for its Electroweb. It and Ash had been thinking about how to use it in an appeal maybe, so it’d spent the last few days testing things out. “I mean, Sawyer was just starting out, but he was already so in synch with his treeko! And they got so strong so fast! It was <em>so weird</em> that they thought I was good to look up to. Especially ‘cause I also learned a whole bunch from battling with <em>them</em>.”</p><p>“Incineroar.”</p><p>“No, really, it was!” Ash nudged Incineroar with his shoulder. It was always so warm, next to Incineroar. Its belt was burning all the time like Charizard and Infernape’s tails, but even as a litten and a torracat it had radiated out body heat like being inside a volcano. </p><p>And even though the sun was really high up, Ash wasn’t ever gonna call sitting near Incineroar uncomfortable, because it was really nice to go near it and know for sure and for certain that his friend was there. Fire types and ice types were both really good for that. Even if he didn’t want to be warm otherwise, he always wanted to be warm because of having a friend.</p><p>Litten was climbing on Kiawe’s head now. Ash watched Incineroar watching the two of them. “I guess,” said Ash. “I guess the thing I learned the most was that if someone thinks you’re cool, you just gotta do your best to help them out when they need it, and also do your best to not feel bad if they get stronger than you, after.”</p><p>He kicked out his feet in front of him. Him and Sawyer had had <em>such</em> an amazing battle in the Kalos League; it was one of Ash’s favorite memories from that whole journey. And Sawyer telling him that he’d only gotten that strong because he’d looked up to Ash and learned from him had been probably the most amazed and honored and humbled Ash had ever felt in his life. </p><p>“Because even if it makes you scared or hurt,” he continued, after a minute of watching Pikachu interrupt its own practice to help Torterra help Melmetal with the Thunderbolt Counter-Shield Ash had been trying to develop with Melmetal’s Thunderbolt and their help. “Maybe especially if it makes you scared. If they get stronger, it means you definitely helped them out!”</p><p>Incineroar tilted its head. “Incin. Incineroar?”</p><p>Ash laughed. “You’re already doing all that, though! So you don’t need to worry about it.”</p><p>“Inci—”</p><p>“Pikapi!” shouted Pikachu, in the tone of voice that meant it was being kidnapped by Team Rocket. </p><p>Ash spun around. Pikachu was stuck in one of those nets Team Rocket hung from their balloon sometimes, trying to Thunderbolt its way out.</p><p>“Ha-HA!” said Jessie. “From under your noses, we’ve snatched Pikachu!”</p><p>“Who’re the suckers?” asked James.</p><p>“I’d say: you!” finished Meowth.</p><p>“Team Rocket!” shouted Ash and Kiawe.</p><p>“Prepare for trouble!”</p><p>“And make it double!” </p><p>“To protect the world from dev—”</p><p>There was a giant gust of wind. It caught the rest of Jessie’s sentence, and Team Rocket’s whole balloon, and the Leaf Storm Torterra was trying to send in their direction, and sent them all screaming towards the mountains.</p><p>Ash and Kiawe locked eyes, recalled their teams, and gave chase.</p><p> </p><p>Over the next few hours, a bunch of things happened. Team Rocket’s balloon popped against the side of a mountain, except they somehow had another that they managed to deploy right as Ash and Kiawe caught up, so him and Kiawe chased Team Rocket some more until they found a path Ash thought he recognized but which was really not the path they were supposed be on to get to Cerulean City. Then Team Rocket almost got away except a passing skarmory zoomed right through their balloon and popped it again, at which point Ash tried to have a battle with them but in the confusion Ash got zapped by a misfired Thunderbolt and Pikachu somehow got switched with Litten.</p><p>That got Kiawe charging after Team Rocket in blind rage, so they fled and grabbed Ash’s backpack with Rowlet in it on their way out. Which meant Ash and Kiawe were chasing them again, but Kiawe was so mad he ran right into a very confused numel who was trying to cross the road and Ash had to stop running to help him ‘cause that knocked back him down the mountain a little. </p><p>Eventually they caught back up again with Team Rocket and Kiawe almost started a fistfight with Jessie. But Ash and James looked at each other and held them back, while Meowth tried to stop Pikachu and Marowak from rescuing Litten and Rowlet, who were still asleep. Which didn’t work, obviously.</p><p>Then Jessie said something snide about Ash watching his back in contests and Pikachu, at this point clearly ready to burst, unceremoniously sent them blasting off.</p><p>Ash sat down.</p><p>“Well,” he said, “I’m glad that’s done!”</p><p> </p><p>Kiawe was very tired, he realized. He was holding Litten in his arms, checking it over and over to make sure Team Rocket hadn’t hurt it. It was getting a bit twitchy, but he had to be sure. If it was hurt, he’d… </p><p>Over to the side, Marowak and Incineroar were still fighting over who got to light the campfire, which meant that when Ash got back from trying to find some berries or something he’d probably just ask Turtonator. </p><p>They’d decided pretty much as soon as Team Rocket had blasted off that where they’d ended up, by the side of the road, was as good a place as any to make camp. Pikachu wanted to let off some steam with a practice battle, and Kiawe was worried about Litten of course. So they used the rest of the afternoon for training, except for the interlude where Ash and Pikachu fought the entire rest of Ash’s team for fun. Which Ash insisted wasn’t training because “All we’re doing is throwing Thunderbolts everywhere, we’re not learning anything!”</p><p>Kiawe spent most of it sitting down and watching, tired from worry and anger, and he realized halfway through that he hadn’t thought about Alola all day. </p><p>He’d felt bad immediately. But then he’d looked down at Litten and felt bad for feeling bad.</p><p>He missed being home.</p><p>“Hey!” said Ash. Kiawe looked up. Ash had a load of roots in his arms that Kiawe just had to trust weren’t poisonous. “I just realized I know where we are!”</p><p>“Oh?” said Kiawe. The kantonian mountains all looked the same to him. They were exciting at first, because they reminded him of Wela Volcano, but then none of them turned out to <em>actually</em> be volcanoes and they’d lost their luster. </p><p>“Yeah!” said Ash. He put the roots down on top of the firewood Melmetal and Rowlet had gathered. “This is the path to Rota Kingdom!”</p><p>That didn’t mean anything to Kiawe, except that he guessed it was sorta odd there was a kingdom in the middle of northern Kanto. It’s not like there were many kingdoms in the world, or anything. Unless they just called themselves a kingdom? Lillie would know. Lillie wasn’t here.</p><p>“And even better than that…” said Ash. He trailed off to pick up Pikachu from his shoulder and spin around. “We realized that we’ve got <em>perfect</em> timing, ‘cause the Aura Guardian festival is happening in just a few days!”</p><p>“Huh?” said Kiawe.</p><p>“Kiawe, there’s a battle tournament! And everyone wears costumes! It’s <em>awesome</em>!”</p><p>“Numel,” agreed the numel standing behind Ash. It nodded solemnly and then took a bite out of the roots he had gathered. “Numel-num!”</p><p>“Huh?” said Ash. He spun back around. “Hey, you’re the numel from earlier! <em>Hey</em>, that was our dinner! Give it back!”</p><p>The numel swallowed.</p><p>“Pika pikachu!” Pikachu jumped out of Ash’s arms and sent a warning Thunderbolt in the numel’s direction. Which didn’t affect it, of course, because it was a ground-type, but that was why it was a warning. “Chu-pika!”</p><p>“Numel num. Numel…” said the numel. It shook its head and then blew a gout of flame out the hole in its back. Like Wela Volcano… “Numel!”</p><p>Kiawe looked at Turtonator. Turtonator nodded.</p><p>“Oh, you wanna fight?” said Ash. “Sure! Pikachu, use—”</p><p>“No!” Kiawe stood up and Turtonator stepped forward. “Let us!”</p><p>Ash looked at them. “Aw, man…” He glanced at Pikachu. “Alright. We’ll judge!”</p><p>He stepped to the side and Kiawe handed Litten to Incineroar — who had finally stopped fighting with Marowak to watch — and joined Turtonator to stand across from Numel. It was tense, excited. </p><p>“I can already tell you burn with the spirit of Wela Volcano!” said Kiawe to it. “Let’s have a battle that will light up the sky!”</p><p>“Numel! Numel num!” said Numel. </p><p>“Go!” said Ash.</p><p>“Turtonator, start it off with Flamethrower!”</p><p>Numel met the Flamethrower with its own Flamethrower, charring what little grass was left on their battlefield.</p><p>“Keep it up!” said Kiawe. </p><p>Eventually, after an intense battle of wills, Turtonator’s Flamethrower managed to come out on top. At which point Numel braced itself and used Magnitude, knocking Kiawe over and nearly toppling Turtonator.</p><p>“Impressive!” said Kiawe, jumping back up and shaking off the dust. “But how can you deal with Dragon Tail?”</p><p>Turtonator charged over, hitting dead-on as Numel was too slow to react to manage a dodge. It staggered. </p><p>But then it blew another gout of flame like saying <em>I’m just getting warmed up!</em> and shot off the most beautiful Lava Plume Kiawe had ever seen.</p><p>“Like Wela Volcano!” he cried, crying. Tears streamed down his cheeks.</p><p>Turtonator turned around, smoking a little from the Lava Plume, and looked at him. </p><p>Numel stopped shooting out the Lava Plume and also looked at him. </p><p>He stared at them both and kept crying. </p><p>“I… guess the battle’s off?” said Ash. Kiawe ignored him.</p><p>“You’re like a piece of home, so far and yet so close!” he said, to Numel. “You burn so brightly, like the fires of Akala at night! You are one of the wonders of the world outside Alola! Wela Volcano in miniature! A glorious sight for the sorest of eyes!”</p><p>“Y’know,” said Ash. “I wonder if Numel only came out when it did because it heard us talking about the Aura Guardian tournament and wanted to be in it?”</p><p>Kiawe stopped ignoring him. “Numel?” he asked, blinking away tears. “Is that true?”</p><p>“Numel! Num!” said Numel. It jumped a little and landed with a crash, and then took a step forward. Flame flashed out of its back again. “Numel?”</p><p>Kiawe held out a hand and wiped at his eyes with the other one. “Would you like to join my team?” he asked. “And win the tournament together?”</p><p>“Num!” said Numel. “Num! Num!”</p><p>So Kiawe walked over with a pokeball, and Numel tapped it with its nose and caught itself while Kiawe’s eyes welled up all over again.</p><p>“Congratulations to you both!” said Ash. He made a face. “I’ll go find more food.”</p><p> </p><p>Rota was just like Ash remembered. </p><p>People — mostly tourists, he thought, because he’d gotten better at recognizing that sort of thing in Alola — crowded the streets, wearing all sorts of costumes. He spotted ninja, and a kid wearing togekiss wings, and knights, and astronauts, and and all sorts of pokemon, and even someone dressed up as Champion Cynthia! It was really festive, with the bridge and the houses and even the castle garlanded all over and stands selling all kinds of food in the street. Lots of people had their pokemon out, too, more than you usually saw around Kanto. Probably it was to show off the pokemon’s costumes!</p><p>Kiawe was looking around, eyes wide. Ash hoped he was having fun and not being overwhelmed! Because the closer they got to the castle, the more Ash was regretting and regretting and wondering why he’d thought coming back to Rota was a good idea. </p><p>But it was, it was going to be fine this time! Nobody was going to be kidnapped by Mew, and Lucario wasn’t— </p><p>And there was the registration booth!</p><p>He grabbed Kiawe by the arm and dragged him over. The line was short, only three people, and Ash bounced a little as they waited. He wondered what pokemon he’d use for the contest. Probably Pikachu, but Rowlet and Lycanroc hadn’t had the chance for a real proper battle in Kanto yet, so maybe he’d give them a chance if they wanted to. Hmmmm. He looked at Pikachu. Maybe it would have an opinion?</p><p>“Hello,” said the desk attendant. They were dressed as a trevenant. “Your names and the pokemon you’ll be entering with, please?”</p><p>“Kiawe, from Akala Island,” said Kiawe. “I’ll be winning with Numel!”</p><p>The attendant nodded absently. Ash thought they were probably trying to place where they’d ever heard of Akala Island. Then they wrote something down. “Alright, you’re registered. You can rent a costume in the costume hall over to the right, and the tournament starts on the hour. Good luck!”</p><p>“Yeah!” said Kiawe. “Thank you.”</p><p>“And you?” said the attendant to Ash. “Are you entering as well?”</p><p>“Yep!” said Ash. “I’m Ash, from Pallet Town! And I’ll be entering with—”</p><p>“Ah,” said the attendant. They flipped through the book they’d been writing in, back to the beginning. “One moment, my apologies. Are you the same Ash of Pallet Town who won the Aura Guardian tournament several years back?”</p><p>“Yep!” said Ash, and Pikachu made an agreement-noise. “And we’ll win again, right Pikachu?”</p><p>“Pika!”</p><p>“Ah, in that case, I’m so sorry,” said the attendant, “but as a former winner you won’t be allowed to participate.”</p><p>“Aw man,” said Ash. “For <em>real</em>?”</p><p>The attendant shrugged. Probably. Their trevenant costume mostly covered their shoulders. “That’s the rules, I’m afraid. We haven’t allowed former winners to enter since fifty years back. You understand, right?”</p><p>“Yeah, I get it,” sighed Ash. He couldn’t be in <em>any</em> tournaments anymore! It wasn’t fair at all! “Sorry to bother you, then. I’ll just cheer really hard for Kiawe!”</p><p>The attendant looked relieved. “Glad to hear it! And good luck to you, Kiawe.” They flipped back to where they were registering people in their book. “I’m sorry again, Ash.”</p><p>“Don’t worry about it!” said Ash. “Thanks for telling us!”</p><p>“You never told me you <em>won</em> last time you entered!” said Kiawe on their way to the costume hall.</p><p>“Ah, sorry!” Ash grabbed the back of his neck. “I didn’t think it was important!”</p><p>The costume hall was also just like Ash remembered, except a bit emptier because him and Kiawe had arrived later in the day than he’d gotten here with Brock and May and Max.</p><p>Ash went and found the Sir Aaron costume he’d worn last time and stared at it a bit before he decided to wear it after all. Pikachu dressed up as Meowth, Incineroar somehow managed to find a Masked Royal mask in a pile of headbands and hats, and Melmetal took a liking to a big poofy ball gown like May had worn last time they were here. Luckily, Ash had pretty much not grown at all, so the Sir Aaron costume still fit him. And his usual cap fit on Rowlet in his backpack. </p><p>Kiawe was still staring intensely at the selection when Ash got out of the changing room. </p><p>“I don’t like it,” he declared. “Alolan costumes are better.”</p><p>So Ash threw a red cape at him and a circlet that looked sorta like the Wela Crown at Marowak and argued with both of them until they agreed to wear them. </p><p>Him and Kiawe had matching capes! Ash thought that was pretty cool.</p><p>They split up at the entrance to the competitors’ area, and Ash went up to find a balcony to watch from with his team and also Turtonator and Marowak and Litten, who was being held by Incineroar. He was trying not to be grumpy about not getting to battle. At least he got to cheer for Kiawe! And watch everyone else’s tactics! </p><p>But he was totally challenging Kiawe to a full four-on-four match tomorrow. He wanted a <em>battle</em>.</p><p>He glanced over and saw Marowak also moping, so he went and patted it on the shoulder. “Kiawe’s not replacing you,” he said, because he’d been meaning to talk to Marowak about that anyway. “Not with Litten or with Numel either.” </p><p>Marowak crossed its arms.</p><p>“I know it feels that way,” said Ash, “but I promise he’s not!”</p><p>“Maro,” said Marowak, and looked away.</p><p>But then Queen Ilene stood up in her box and started the tournament, so they couldn’t talk anymore.</p><p> </p><p>Kiawe was in the finals. Kiawe was in the finals!</p><p>This was <em>amazing</em>. He hadn’t felt this alive since the Manalo Conference. Gym battles were fun, for sure, but <em>tournaments</em>… </p><p>And he was getting to win it with Numel! They’d even managed a z-move earlier, even though they’d only met a few days ago. Kiawe felt like he’d known Numel forever. It was amazing! </p><p>And he was <em>so</em> ready to win.</p><p>His opponent for the finals was a girl in samurai armor. She had a big poof of black hair that looked like the tail of the pignite she’d been using all tournament, and she’d won all her battles so far with quick and fiery precision. </p><p>Not only was Kiawe in the finals, but the finals were going to be a <em>fire-type showdown! </em></p><p>“Let this final battle between Audrey of Aspertia City and Kiawe of Akala Island… begin!” </p><p>“Numel!” said Kiawe, tossing its pokeball. “One last win!”</p><p>“Numel!” agreed Numel.</p><p>“No matter what happens in this battle, I’ll definitely learn from your fighting style and become even stronger!” Audrey grinned sharply. “Pignite! Here we go again!”</p><p>Her pignite burst out, fighting-ready. Numel banged a foreleg on the ground.</p><p>Kiawe was so ready. </p><p>“Numel! Start out with Flamethrower!”</p><p>“Pignite! Dodge with Flame Charge!”</p><p>Pignite veiled itself in flame and dashed right past Numel’s Flamethrower, then came speeding in towards Numel. </p><p>“Head Smash!” shouted Audrey.</p><p>“Numel, Magnitude!” </p><p>Numel jumped. The ground shook. Pignite tripped and lost its Head Smash before it could hit. </p><p>“Now, Earth Power!”</p><p>Numel stamped, and the ground cracked golden, spreading and spreading until it hit Pignite, who was just standing up. It staggered.</p><p>“Stay strong, Pignite!” shouted Audrey. “Strike back with Flame Charge!”</p><p>Pignite charged again, even faster than before, and this time Numel didn’t have a chance to counter. It was sent skidding to the side, and then again as Audrey called another Flame Charge for good measure.</p><p>Kiawe thought fast. </p><p>They couldn’t possibly outspeed it. Numel wasn’t fast in the first place, and Flame Charge — Kiawe knew from fighting Ash — made it just about impossible to anticipate how your opponent was moving, let alone hit them. Numel could probably stand up to more than a few more attacks, but defense alone didn’t win you fights. He had to end this quickly. </p><p>Which meant that if they couldn’t beat Audrey in speed, they had to beat her in power.</p><p>“One last Flame Charge!” called Audrey.</p><p>“Numel, Magnitude again!” </p><p>The ground shook less fiercely this time, but it was enough to stagger Pignite, and that gave Kiawe the opportunity he needed. </p><p>“Alright, Numel!” Kiawe set his stance. “Like the magma bubbling deep in Wela Volcano, become a raging fire and <em>burn!</em> Use Inferno Overdrive!” </p><p>“Duck!” said Audrey, immediately.</p><p>Numel erupted. Immediately, the battlefield was flooded with fire from its back, so Pignite ducking on her command didn’t really matter. </p><p>The flames cleared. </p><p>Numel was breathing hard, its back trailing a thin tendril of smoke. </p><p>And Pignite was braced on one knee, charred but still very much battle-ready.</p><p>“Assurance,” said Audrey, grinning really big.</p><p>Numel fell.</p><p>There was a moment of silence, and then the judge said, “Numel is unable to battle. Audrey and Pignite win, which means we have a new Guardian for the year: Audrey of Aspertia City!”</p><p>“Awesome!” shouted Audrey, and immediately ran to tackle her pignite in a hug. </p><p>Kiawe followed her out to the field and crouched down next to Numel. “You were <em>amazing</em>,” he said. “Thank you for entering the tournament with me! Even if we didn’t win.”</p><p>“Num numel,” said Numel. It smiled. And then stood up and gestured at Audrey with its head. “Numel numel numel numel!”</p><p>Kiawe grinned. “Yeah! Next time we fight her, we’ll win for sure!”</p><p>Then him and Numel went to shake hands with Audrey. </p><p>She was still smiling when they got there, and her Pignite was behind her, brushing dust off its shoulders. “Hey,” she said, “that was an awesome battle, thanks so much! The way you used Magnitude to counter the moves Pignite needs to be up close for was super clever!”</p><p>“You won fair and square,” said Kiawe. They shook hands. “Standing up to a z-move is no small feat. How’d you know how to do it?”</p><p>Audrey tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. “I was watching you battle earlier, and when I saw how powerful your Inferno Overdrive was, I knew I <em>had</em> to come with a counter! Pignite and I worked it out between matches.” She laughed. “I’m really glad it worked, I wasn’t sure it would!”</p><p>“Pignite!” said Pignite. “Pig, pignite.”</p><p>“Numel num,” said Numel. It stomped.</p><p>“Whoa, Numel wants a rematch already!” said Audrey.</p><p>Kiawe nodded. “You and Pignite have got Numel all fired up! I wouldn’t mind a rematch either.”</p><p>“You’re on!” said Audrey. “Maybe—”</p><p>Ash jumped off the balcony. “Kiawe, that was awesome!” he said. </p><p>“You know him?” asked Audrey, staring a little. </p><p>“Yeah, that’s my friend Ash,” said Kiawe.</p><p>“And this is my partn—” Ash paused, and glanced at his empty shoulder. “Oh, Pikachu and everyone musta taken the stairs.”</p><p>“Why didn’t <em>you</em>?” asked Audrey.</p><p>Ash made a face. “I was excited! That was such a cool battle, I had to come congratulate Kiawe as soon as possible!”</p><p>“Yeah, we were pretty awesome,” agreed Audrey. She’d apparently decided not to ask how Ash was totally fine with jumping off balconies, which was probably a good thing.</p><p>“We were just talking about a rematch!” announced Kiawe.</p><p>“Oh, cool!” said Ash. “Does that mean you’re rivals now? That’d be awesome!”</p><p>Kiawe glanced at Audrey. She shrugged, and smiled. </p><p>“Sounds good to me!” he said.</p><p>“I’m always interested in finding new rivals,” said Audrey. “There’s no better way to learn and grow stronger!”</p><p>“Yeah!” said Ash, because he apparently he couldn’t let a conversation go by without contributing.</p><p>At that point, Queen Ilene apparently decided they’d talked enough, and stood up to formally announce the end of the tournament and summon Audrey to her audience room. </p><p> </p><p>The three of them wandered off the battlefield together and met Ash’s team and the rest of Kiawe’s team at the bottom of the stairs. Litten immediately jumped into Kiawe’s arms and Pikachu onto Ash’s shoulder, and then Audrey released the rest of her team — a scrafty, a mienfoo, and a shieldon — so they could all meet each other properly.</p><p>Once introductions were done and Marowak had challenged Scrafty to a battle, Ash led the way to the audience room while Audrey and Kiawe compared badges, since it turned out she was also doing the Kanto gym challenge. She had three, which meant Kiawe was vowing, fire in his eyes, to surpass her by the next time they met. Ash smiled. Maybe he’d wait a few more days to challenge Kiawe to that big battle he wanted. He knew better than to get between someone and their rival.</p><p>Queen Ilene was waiting for them. </p><p>Well, she was waiting for Audrey, and blinked a little when Kiawe and Ash followed her in. Her Mime Jr jumped in place, and Ash cast a glance at Pikachu. </p><p>Hopefully Mew wouldn’t cause trouble this time…</p><p>“Congratulations, Audrey of Aspertia City,” said Queen Ilene. “We don’t normally get visitors from as far abroad as Unova.”</p><p>Audrey put a hand on Pignite’s shoulder. “Yeah,” she said. “It’s a bit far from home, but I thought I could learn a lot about different styles of battling if I came to Kanto!”</p><p>“Well, I wish you luck in that endeavor,” said Queen Ilene. “You performed excellently today.” She glanced over at Kiawe. “And you as well, Kiawe of Akala Island.” She gestured Mime Jr onto her lap with one gloved hand. “Two visitors from such distant regions is a blessing on this kingdom. Why, I don’t think we’ve had a contestant from Alola since the year of my mother’s coronation!”</p><p>Kiawe nodded solemnly. Ash was always so amazed at how well he took to tradition and formality. Kiawe was so cool! “It’s an honor, Queen Ilene.”</p><p>“And Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town,” said Queen Ilene finally, her gaze resting on Ash. “It has been a long time.”</p><p>“Whoa, you remember me?” said Ash. “It’s been <em>ages</em>!”</p><p>“Your last visit took place on a rather memorable day,” said Queen Ilene. She gestured towards a small painting of Sir Aaron on the far wall. “It would be difficult to forget you.”</p><p>“Ah,” said Ash. He put his hand to the back of his neck and tried not to think about why it was memorable. “I guess it was, yeah. Still!”</p><p>“Well, you’ll be glad to know that the Tree of Beginning has recovered well,” said Queen Ilene. “And I believe Mew comes by to watch the tournament some years, although of course I have no way of knowing.”</p><p>“Oh, that’s really good!” said Ash. Kiawe and Audrey exchanged a glance. “I’m super happy for you guys. And for Mew and the Tree!”</p><p>“Now, Audrey,” said Queen Ilene. She settled herself in her really fancy chair. “As the Hero of the Year, you’ll be the guest of honor at tonight’s ball, so there are certain things…”</p><p> </p><p>Audrey was just about exploding with joy. She’d come to Rota hopeful but not particularly expectant, because she’d never turn down the chance at a tournament and its links with old history sounded pretty cool! She still didn’t know much about the old history, really, but she’d not only <em>won</em> the tournament and been named Hero of the Year, she’d also made two new friends who seemed totally fascinating!</p><p>And now she got to sit in a really nice — if not that comfortable — chair, and hold a centuries-old staff in her lap, and watch everyone in all their costumes stumble through formal dance. She was <em>so</em> glad she wasn’t down there. When Ilene had explained what she’d be expected to preside over the ball instead of participate, she’d obviously expected Audrey to be disappointed. </p><p>But Audrey liked people-watching, and some of the dancers came and talked to her every once in awhile, and she’d sent Mienfoo off with Ash and Kiawe’s pokemon so that it could enjoy the dancing like it wanted to without her embarrassing herself as its partner. She was so glad she didn’t have to dance. And she was even gladder when she noticed Ash stumbling into everyone around him and stepping on the toes of anyone who dared dance with him. Kiawe was a little better, but not by much. Mienfoo was twirling around with Kiawe’s alolan marowak, though, and they seemed to be having fun.</p><p>Eventually, Kiawe apparently got bored of dancing and bored of watching Ash eye the hors d’oeuvres and wandered over to talk to her. His turtonator, who had returned itself the moment it realized it would have to make an effort to not step on toes, released itself, and he had that litten he doted on constantly in his arms.</p><p>“So, Inferno Overdrive,” she said, when he’d lingered nearby her long enough that it was obvious he wanted to talk but couldn’t for the life of him think of a conversation opener. “You called it a z-move, right? I’ve never seen one before; the power is incredible!”</p><p>Kiawe smiled slightly and put a hand on Turtonator’s chest. “Isn’t it?” he said. “Z-moves are the pride of Alola! The bond between trainer and pokemon and our responsibility towards the great beauty and soul of our islands combine together into pure and radiant power that dazzles the eye and sets the heart on fire!”</p><p>Audrey blinked. “Okay,” she said, ignoring the fact that he was crying. “Break that down for me. How do they work?” She tapped her fingers on Sir Aaron’s staff. “You did a pose every time you used it, so that’s got something to do with it. But you’re talking like the bond between trainer and pokemon is important too?”</p><p>Kiawe looked offended. “The <em>most</em> important,” he said. “The poses, the z-ring, the z-crystal…” He tapped the chunky bracelet he wore on one wrist. Ash had one too, with a yellow crystal instead of red, so she’d been wondering about them. “They are all of great import, but they are also just methods of channeling the most important part of a z-move, which is the power of your bond!”</p><p>“Huh,” said Audrey. “We don’t really have anything like that in Unova.” Aside from mega-evolution, but there were so few unovan pokemon who could mega-evolve that she’d only ever seen it once in person, and that was from a visiting trainer and her aerodactyl. One of the reasons she’d come to Kanto was she’d hoped she could learn more about battle phenomena you just didn’t see in Unova! “So, if Inferno Overdrive is just one of many z-moves, what are the others?”</p><p>Kiawe held up a hand, and tapped the crystal in his bracelet again. Z-crystal and z-ring, right. “There’s a z-move for each type,” he said. “And some pokemon have their own special z-moves, my friend Lana has a primarinium-z so her and her primarina can use Oceanic Operetta, which only primarina can use. Ash and Pikachu have their own z-move too. But most people just get by with the standard ones. Being able to use z-moves at all is an enormous honor!”</p><p>Audrey nodded, and opened her mouth again to ask about the crystals when Ash appeared. He was holding two pastries, one in each hand, and his pikachu was holding a third and nibbling on it from his shoulder. Audrey glanced between him in his Sir Aaron costume and the big portrait of Sir Aaron on the wall. He really did look like the hero in miniature. All he was missing was a lucario.</p><p>He reached for the staff in her lap, which would have completed the image, and she batted his hands away. “Sorry, sorry,” he said, and took a bite of pastry. “What were you talking about? Everyone got tired of me stepping on their toes so I’m done dancing.”</p><p>“Z-moves,” said Kiawe, before Audrey could say something about how she’d been done with dancing since the music had started. “Audrey was curious about them.”</p><p>Ash’s face lit up. “Aren’t they awesome! They’re like, bam! And then the battlefield’s all bright and colorful! You know, Kiawe was the first person I ever saw use a z-move!”</p><p>“Oh, really?” said Audrey. Right, he was from Kanto, not Alola. “Kiawe said you can use one with Pikachu. How do you learn to do that?”</p><p>Ash grinned. “Oh, you complete a Grand Trial! And the Island Kahuna gives you a z-crystal. So much cooler than a badge or a ribbon… Alola’s the best!”</p><p>Kiawe frowned. “It’s not so easy as that. A Grand Trial is a test of not only your skill but also your bonds and your honor and your sense of responsibility. The kahuna only give z-crystals to those they believe won’t abuse the power. It’s a sacred responsibility.”</p><p>“Yeah!” said Ash. “They’re all super cool!”</p><p>Audrey nodded. Past all the stuff about sacred responsibility, which was going over her head a little, you apparently had to get a z-crystal in a very specific way, a way you could only do in Alola. She was <em>so</em> visiting Kiawe’s home region when her journey in Kanto was done! That was set in a stone! A whole region whose battle style incorporated z-moves? She could learn so much!</p><p>“Oh, hey!” said Ash. “Me an’ Pikachu should show you Gigavolt Havoc, that’s the electric-type z-move! Tapu Koko itself taught us how to do it the first time!”</p><p>“Pika pikachu!”</p><p>“Yes!” said Audrey. Tapu Koko? Probably a pokemon. She’d ask later. “As soon as the ball is done! I wonder if they’ll let us use the castle’s battlefield?”</p><p>“I’ll ask Queen Ilene!” said Ash.</p><p>Kiawe caught him by the back of the jacket. “In the middle of the ball? No way. That’s just not how it’s done.”</p><p>“Fine,” said Ash. He made a face. Audrey laughed a little. “Later, then. Hey, Audrey, what gym are you going to after this?”</p><p>“Uh…” she said. She looked down at the staff. It was amazingly well-preserved for something that was centuries old and used every year. She wondered what Sir Aaron had been like. “I dunno. I was headed west, ish. Since my last badge was at the Cerulean Gym and Misty told me there were good gyms in western Kanto.”</p><p>“Aw, man, we were headed to Cerulean next! Misty’s pretty great, isn’t she?”</p><p>“She’s super strong!” said Audrey. It was totally unfair that she’d pulled out her mega-gyarados for the battle, even though she’d made it four against one in Audrey’s favor and Audrey had eventually managed to win. “I learned so much! She has a mega-gyarados!”</p><p>Ash grinned. “I know, right?”</p><p>“If you’re headed west,” said Kiawe. “Make sure to stop by Viridian City. The gym there is run by Agatha, of the Kanto Elite Four.”</p><p>“Whoa, <em>really</em>?” said Audrey. She grabbed the staff and threw her arms up into the air. “That sounds amazing! I’ll totally go there next! Did you really win her badge?”</p><p>“Yep!” said Kiawe, pulling out his badge case and showing her. “It was an amazing battle.”</p><p>“I want to hear all about it!” said Audrey. “And more about z-moves, and all about what battling is like in Alola, and Ash you mentioned you do contests, right, I’ve never seen one before ‘cause there’s none in Unova but they have battles too, right? and—”</p><p>Ash laughed. “I guess we should travel together until our paths split, then! More time for talking!”</p><p>“Sounds good to me,” said Kiawe. “We can have a rematch.”</p><p>“I’m in!” said Audrey, grinning. Wow! It was so amazing that she’d met these people! “And you’re on!”</p><p> </p><p>The next day was blue and clear, and the air was biting mountain-cold. </p><p>Ash woke up to Pikachu’s Thunderbolt, because he’d stayed up late when Queen Ilene asked to talk to him privately when he went to ask her about borrowing the battlefield. So he hadn’t gotten to show Audrey Gigavolt Havoc yet, although Audrey and Kiawe had had another battle that Torterra refereed. Instead, he’d sat down with Queen Ilene and they’d talked about Lucario, and what she’d managed to dig up about Sir Aaron and about Aura in the castle archives. </p><p>It was weirdly nice to have someone who just wanted to talk about it, academically. The only other time he’d come close to the topic recently was Gladion demanding to know what was up with him on Ten Carat Hill, and that had only been fun when he managed to convince Gladion to battle him instead of asking questions he didn’t know how to answer. Queen Ilene didn’t really ask him anything, she just told him about what the Aura Guardians used to do. Which meant he ended up telling her about Riley, and about Riolu from Sinnoh, and even a little bit about Greninja and Lysandre, because suddenly they seemed relevant after all. </p><p>So it was nice. But then Pikachu had to wake him up with a Thunderbolt, which was less nice. </p><p>They ate the Pokemon Center’s breakfast, which was a nice change from berries, and then they waited for Audrey, who didn’t have a partner that knew Thunderbolt to wake her up. Ash had a hard time recognizing her until she released Pignite when she finally did come down, because her normal clothes, which were orange and brown and yellow and sporty, were totally different from the samurai armor she’d worn all of yesterday. </p><p>And once she’d eaten and finished waking up, they said goodbye to Nurse Joy and set off through Rota’s streets. There were still a bunch of stands up, because the festival was officially over but obviously they were still a bunch of tourists around. Kiawe bought a charm with a ponyta on it for Mimo, to mail the next chance he got, and Audrey bought herself a bracelet that was the same color orange as Pignite.</p><p>It was after lunch, when they were wandering towards the exit from Rota Kingdom, when a small blue blur smacked into Audrey and they both fell over.</p><p>“Ow!” said Audrey. “Hey!”</p><p>“Olu…” said the blue blur. A riolu. It bowed apologetically. “Olu riolu!”</p><p>Audrey propped herself up on her elbow and grinned. “Don’t worry about it! That was one powerful Tackle! Amazing!”</p><p>The riolu shook its head. “Olu olu!” it said, glancing behind itself. It skittered to hide behind Audrey as she sat up. “Riolu!”</p><p>“Oh, no, not the <em>twerps</em>,” said a very familiar voice. Three people ran up, panting. They were dressed as lucario, except the really short one, which was dressed as another riolu.</p><p>“That riolu sure runs fast,” said the short one. “And with the worst destination possible!”</p><p>“Well, nothing for it,” sighed the third one. “Twerps will be twerps.”</p><p>They pulled off their costumes.</p><p>“Team Rocket!” exclaimed Ash and Kiawe.</p><p>“Team Rocket?” said Audrey. She glanced behind herself at Riolu. “Who’re they?”</p><p>“I’m so glad you asked, Twerpette I’ve not met!”</p><p>“I hope you enjoy the answers you get!”</p><p>“The beauty so radiant the flowers and moon hide in shame! A single flower of evil in this flee—”</p><p>“Hey,” interrupted Meowth. “Weren’t we using the old old motto?”</p><p>Jessie glared at him. “Well, I wanted to mix it up!”</p><p>“We don’t <em>do</em> that,” complained Meowth. “New region, new motto.”</p><p>“No, I think Jessie’s right,” put in James. “Maybe it’s time for something entirely new?”</p><p>Ash ignored them as they kept arguing and turned to Audrey. “They’re bad people who steal other people’s pokemon,” he explained. “Which means they were probably going after Riolu.”</p><p>“What!” said Audrey. “How dare they!”</p><p>“How dare <em>you</em>,” said James back.</p><p>“Enough of this!” said Jessie. She tossed a pokeball. “Gourgeist! Shadow Ball!”</p><p>“No way!” said Audrey. She scrambled the rest of the way to standing. “Pignite, Assurance!”</p><p>Pignite took the hit and then smacked back with Assurance, sending Gourgeist skidding into Jessie’s arms. </p><p>“Awesome, Pignite!” said Audrey. “Stay strong and use Flame Charge! We’re not letting you thieves get your hands on this riolu!”</p><p>“Yeah!” said Ash. He glanced down. Riolu was hiding behind Audrey’s leg, staring wide-eyed. </p><p>“No way!” said James. “Okay, Inkay! Block that Flame Charge with Tackle!”</p><p>They collided. James’s Inkay had always been super fast. And that gave Gourgeist enough time to get back up to hovering. </p><p>“Shadow Ball again!”</p><p>“Two against one isn’t <em>fair</em>,” said Kiawe. “Marowak, let’s—”</p><p>“Riolu!” said Riolu. It jumped out in front of Audrey, just as Gourgeist’s Shadow Ball went flying. “Riolu!”</p><p>It glowed purple. </p><p>And it sent a Shadow Ball right back.</p><p>“Whoa!” said Audrey. “That was Copycat! Riolu, that was amazing!”</p><p>Gourgeist tumbled into Jessie’s arms again, and Pignite took the chance to dart another Flame Charge at Inkay, which hit and smacked it out of the air. James ran over and picked it up.</p><p>“Ri! Riolu!”</p><p>Jessie, James, and Meowth all looked at each other.</p><p>“I think Riolu wants to help you out, since you defended it,” said Ash. “What an awesome pokemon!”</p><p>“Seems like it,” said Kiawe, examining the battlefield with a critical eye. “Guess we won’t be needed after all, Marowak.”</p><p>“Maro…” said Marowak, sullen.</p><p>“Looks like it’s time for a retreat…” said James.</p><p>“Once again, we’ve piled more food on our plate than we can eat,” said Jessie.</p><p>“Let’s go!” said Meowth.</p><p>“Oh no you don’t!” said Ash. “Pikachu, Thunderbolt!”</p><p>Pikachu used Thunderbolt. They blasted off, and Ash tracked their course through the sky with his eyes.</p><p>Meanwhile Audrey was kneeling down to talk to Riolu. “Do you have a trainer?” she asked. </p><p>Riolu shook its head. It shuffled its feet a little, and then it pointed at the castle, and then over where Ash knew the Tree of Beginning was. </p><p>“Oh,” said Ash. Of course. He knelt down too. “Did you come here all on your own because you heard about Sir Aaron’s Lucario?”</p><p>“Olu riolu!” Riolu nodded. It did a punching gesture, like it was trying to imitate a hero. “Riolu!”</p><p>“Awesome!” said Ash. </p><p>Audrey frowned for a second. “Hey, Ash, Kiawe, d’you mind delaying leaving until tomorrow?”</p><p>Kiawe shook his head, and so did Ash. There was still so much to see in Rota!</p><p>“Awesome!” She looked down at Riolu again. “Hey, Riolu. I can show you the castle if you want.”</p><p>“Olu! Riolu!” said Riolu. It jumped into her arms in celebration.</p><p>“And then after that,” she said. Her voice turned all tentative, and she stood up with Riolu still in her arms and took out a pokeball. “After that, d’you want to come on my journey with me? I think we could learn a lot together!”</p><p>“Lu!” it said, and reached over to tap the pokeball.</p><p> </p><p>They finally made it out of Rota two days later. Audrey didn’t mind — she’d learned so much! — but she could tell Kiawe was getting sort of impatient in a way that looked like a Bide attack getting charged up, and Ash was fidgeting at every opportunity. It was worth it, though, because Queen Ilene told them and especially Riolu all about Sir Aaron and his Lucario, and then let them loose in the castle library for a day. Which Audrey mostly used to track down a book of fighting-type tactics, but still. </p><p>Apparently Ash and Kiawe hadn’t come up to Rota the normal way, so they hadn’t seen the cave the path dipped in and out of when the mountain was too steep for a real road. Well, Ash had, but he said it was “<em>ages</em> ago” that he’d last been to Rota Kingdom and that none of his pokemon except Pikachu had been there. Or none of his current team? </p><p>She really couldn’t get a read on him. Her and Kiawe had sparred a bunch of times in the last few days, and even had one big proper battle — that Ash had refereed, and Audrey had won, thank you — and Ash always stuck to the side, directing his team in contest battles and practicing the intricate combinations you apparently needed to do to win a contest appeals round. And she wouldn’t have found anything odd about that, if he didn’t sometimes also turn the himself-against-himself battles into showdowns that looked at lot more like proper League battles instead of anything he’d described contest battles as.</p><p>She’d gotten the impression, too, that coordinators usually ended up with mostly unevolved pokemon, which he seemed to fit if you just looked at his pikachu and his rowlet and even his lycanroc, which was apparently fully evolved but could totally have passed for a middle-stage evolution. But then he’d turn around to talk to his torterra or his incineroar or his melmetal: and boy had her pokedex had some trouble with that one! It was a unovan pokedex, to be fair, so it was probably missing a bunch of pokemon, but it had managed the rest of his alolan pokemon just fine. Ash had just laughed when she asked him, though, and then shared a joke with Kiawe about a rotom.</p><p>It was weird. He was weird. Kiawe she could wrap her head around — he was a bit like her, a kinda-experienced type-specialist battle trainer who was on a journey far from home to learn as much as he could — but Ash was just weird. Especially his pikachu, which she swore he had full conversations with and which moved more steadily than <em>gym</em> pokemon did, sometimes.</p><p>Still, though. Since neither of them had seen the cave, at least not in awhile, she got to watch their mouths drop in awe when they realized all the walls were covered in pale green luminescent moss. </p><p>They released the bigger, slower members of their teams — apparently traveling with most of your pokemon out, even if you had a full team of six, was a lot more common in Alola than elsewhere, but their bigger team-members preferred to stay returned in the mountains. Which was awesome! It had Audrey doing it too; normally she just wandered aroud with Pignite out, if that, but Mienfoo and Scrafty and even Shieldon a little had all decided to walk outside their pokeballs sometimes now, and Riolu spent its time stuck so close to her legs she’d almost tripped over it a couple times. It was really nice, actually.</p><p>They ate lunch in a cavern full of moss and stalagmites and clear dripping water, and were just packing up when Marowak threw its bone right at a sleeping zubat, which squawked awake.</p><p>That woke up its friends, and those friends woke up their friends, who were golbat, and then the golbat woke up one very large and very grumpy crobat, and then they were gathering up all their food and lunch stuff and fleeing into the cave at top speed.</p><p>When Audrey finally stopped running, breathing hard, she looked around to realize that not only had she (somehow) managed to lose the zubat, and the golbat, and the crobat, she’d also managed to lose most of everyone else. Riolu was next to her, holding onto her leg — it was so fast when it wanted to be! — and Ash standing just behind her, a blurry shadow, as out of breath as she was. But the rest of the cave was dark and still. </p><p>“Audrey?” he said. “Are you alright?”</p><p>“I’m fine,” she said, trying to catch her breath. She reached down and picked up Riolu. “Riolu’s here. D’you know where everyone else went?”</p><p>“No idea,” he said. Oh, Zekrom, she hoped her team was managing alright. She hoped Shieldon hadn’t tripped into a hole. She hoped— “I managed to recall Torterra in time,” added Ash, voice tight with worry, “but it was too dark…” He paused. “It’s still too dark. Torterra, come out!”</p><p>The cave was lit in red for a second, and then the sound something heavy hitting the floor resounded. </p><p>“I think we’re lost,” said Ash, to Torterra. “Can you make an Energy Ball and eat it for light?”</p><p>“Torterra?” said Torterra. Its deep voice bounced oddly off the walls.</p><p>“Yeah, I know it won’t last forever,” said Ash. “But it’s the best we’ve got.”</p><p>“Terra,” agreed Torterra. It pulled together an Energy Ball, casting the cave in eerie green, and then just when Audrey was getting used to that it gulped it down, which for some reason made the leaves on its tree glow silvery-green. Shadows streaked oddly across the walls. </p><p>“Thanks, Torterra,” said Ash. “That helps a ton! You can see now, yeah, Audrey?”</p><p>Audrey blinked. She was pretty sure Ash should be panicking more. She was pretty sure <em>she</em> was panicking. Her arms felt icy. “Um,” she said. “Um, yeah, I can, thanks.”</p><p>“Cool!” said Ash. “HmmmMMM…” </p><p>Audrey tried to pull her brain together. “The path I took through the cave going to Rota had the glowing moss the whole way through,” she said. Torterra swung its head to look at her. “Which means we’re not on the right path.”</p><p>“Terra,” said Torterra. </p><p>“We should head back up the way we came,” said Ash. </p><p>Audrey didn’t see a problem with that, so she agreed, and they started heading back. Slowly, for Torterra’s sake, and also so that they didn’t run into any walls or ceilings. </p><p>Audrey was rethinking her stance on how cool this cave was, and Ash was walking out in front of her, holding his hand in front of himself and occasionally turning around and walking backwards. Which of course meant <em>he</em> walked into a few walls, but he didn’t seem very bothered. He just kept talking about how cool the caves in Mount Lanakila in Alola were — “we got lost in there once, you know! and Lillie won a double battle that I totally missed seeing, it was so cool, I wish I coulda been there!” — and then asking if she’d ever seen any cool caves. </p><p>She had, actually. She’d caught Mienfoo in a cool cave, where she’d seen it dancing between stalagmites! But cool cave stories were only fun when you weren’t also lost in a cave.</p><p>And then the passage got too narrow for Torterra to walk through. They stood there for a moment. </p><p>“Terra,” said Torterra apologetically.</p><p>Ash crouched down and took its beak in his hands. The light from Torterra’s leaves streaked his shadows all odd. “Don’t worry about it, Torterra,” he said. “It’s not your fault at all! You just take a good rest, and we’ll figure something out. You super helped us already!”</p><p>“Terra torterra,” objected Torterra, but Ash returned it anyway and left them all in darkness.</p><p>“Hmmmmmm,” he said again, as Audrey tried to blink the spots out of her eyes. “Riolu!” He walked over and plucked it out of Audrey’s arms. For some reason, it let him. “Riolu,” he said, “can you use Aura at all?”</p><p>“Olu…” said Riolu. It sounded very sad. “Olu riolu.” </p><p>“Don’t worry about it,” said Ash. “Aura’s hard, I dunno how either! I’m sure you’ll get the trick eventually.” He handed Riolu back to Audrey, and made a shrugging noise. “I guess we just better be careful!”</p><p>Then he started walking again, and Audrey had to follow. </p><p>He ran into the wall a few more times than Audrey did, apparently because he was walking with his eyes closed and trying to figure something out. For some reason. </p><p>Of course, it was mostly so dark that having your eyes closed was about the same as keeping them open, really. But he missed when there started being a little bit of light again and tripped right over a rock. </p><p>She helped him up. “Look, we can see shadows now!”</p><p>“Whoa, awesome!” he said. “We must be close!”</p><p>“Riolu! Riolu!”</p><p>Riolu jumped into his arms from Audrey, which Audrey was a little ashamed to admit was a relief because her arms were starting to hurt. And she was so preoccupied with shaking them out that she almost didn’t notice Ash’s eyes flashing blue for a second when he caught Riolu.</p><p>“What—” she said. </p><p>But he was already ahead of her. “Come on, we’re almost there, right?”</p><p>“Right!”</p><p> </p><p>Kiawe was waiting right where the paths diverged, holding Litten and alternating between staring at it with a tenderness Audrey hadn’t realized a human being was capable of before she met him and anxiously looking around the split paths. They arrived during the staring at Litten phase, which meant it took him a second to notice them and he nearly jumped out of his skin when he did.</p><p>“Kiawe!” said Ash. “Awesome! You got less lost than us!”</p><p>“Have you seen the rest of my team?” asked Audrey.</p><p>Kiawe shook his head, and they all settled down to wait. Hopefully the pokemon would also be able to retrace their steps…</p><p> </p><p>About twenty minutes later, or something like that, Pikachu came marching up one of the other paths, Marowak just behind it as a flashlight with Rowlet on its head and Incineroar bringing up the rear to make sure everyone else could see as well. </p><p>“Pikapi!” it shouted, abandoning its dignity as soon as it spotted Ash to jump into his arms. </p><p>Audrey ran to her pokemon, counting them mentally and then gathering them all in a hug. “I was so worried,” she said. “Don’t do that to me ever again!”</p><p>“Pignite,” said Pignite, in a low, comforting voice, and she relaxed a little. “Pignite, nite.”</p><p>“Mienfoo,” said Mienfoo, laughing a little. It pointed an arm at Shieldon, who had a bunch of scratches on its head. “Foo foo.”</p><p>“Shiel<em>don</em>,” complained Shieldon. “Shieldon shieldon.”</p><p>“You’re <em>not</em> fine,” said Audrey. Shieldon was always so clumsy. It made her worry. “We’ll need to fix you up, I hope Ash or Kiawe have got a spare potion…”</p><p>While she dealt with that, Scrafty climbed onto her shoulder — it would get bored in a few minutes and climb back off but it’d been enjoying the height the past few days — and Pignite started a conversation with Riolu. </p><p>Ash and Kiawe were reuniting with their own teams — Ash complimenting Pikachu on its leadership skills especially — and then when everyone was settled they started back down the moss-lit path until it burst into afternoon daylight again and they unanimously decided to stay there for the night.</p><p>Audrey wasn’t worried anymore. She was back with her team and her friends, and something had gone wrong already but they’d made it out just fine. It was really nice, traveling with Ash and Kiawe, sparring and laughing and sharing stories. She’d always been alone, before this, just her and her team, but suddenly, being away from Kiawe’s fiery determination and Ash’s bubbly enthusiasm sounded more lonely than she could bear. </p><p>Ash handed her the soup they’d made together, and she met Pignite’s eyes. </p><p>Well! At least she could get in a few more battles with Kiawe before they made it to the bottom of the mountain and had to say goodbye!</p><p> </p><p>
  
</p><p>[<a href="https://sweetcandyholic.tumblr.com/post/635723361235910656">link</a>] [sketch page of audrey by my unstoppable partner in crime connie fallingwish]</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>audrey is my favorite oc in this story and i hope you all enjoy her as much as i do. she appeared fully-formed in my head ten minutes after i decided kiawe needed a non-ash rival in this fic and she is here to <i>learn things</i> and <i>have fun</i></p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Cerulean City</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>this should be the last of the monster-length 9Kish chapters for awhile, and thank goodness if you ask me. back down to 6-7K we go after this, for a little while at least. but first, many things happen in cerulean city!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Kiawe dragged Ash to the Cerulean Gym at a run. Not that he knew where it was, so they stopped every once in awhile so he could ask Ash (who usually asked a random passerby) where to turn next, but he wasn’t about to let that stop him! </p><p>Misty was in the gym when they banged the door open, scribbling at a stack of papers from a seat high up in the bleachers. She looked up and then jumped up, scattering them on the floor. “Ash! Kiawe!”</p><p>“Alola!” said Ash and Kiawe together, and then Ash ran ahead of Kiawe and hugged both Misty and the corsola who was sitting with her. </p><p>“You’re just in time!” said Misty. “Who wants a battle?”</p><p>“You’re excited!” said Ash. He started picking up the papers she’d dropped. Kiawe went to join him. Misty sighed and reached down too, after greeting all Ash’s pokemon. “What were you working on?”</p><p>“Never,” said Misty dramatically, “become a gym leader. Normally I can get my sisters to do the paperwork for me ‘cause it gives me headaches, but they have a show opening in two weeks so they’re busy with rehearsal, which means I’ve gotta pick up their slack.”</p><p>“Corsola cor,” agreed Corsola.</p><p>Ash wrinkled his nose. “Sounds boring. What’s the show about?”</p><p>“It’s an underwater opera. Needs a lot of specialized sound-work and stuff, and they’ve been trying to renovate the gym’s acoustics lately anyway, so they’ve been talking to tech people who do work for Wallace — you know, the Champion of Hoenn sometimes — when he’s performing.”</p><p>“Huh, cool,” said Ash.</p><p>“You <em>say</em> that, but it just means I have more work. Especially with the contest tomorrow…” She yawned. “You’re just in time. The gym’s getting taken over by the Cerulean Contest tomorrow, so not only will having a challenger or two free me from the horrors of paperwork but we wouldn’t be able to battle tomorrow anyway.”</p><p>“Then let’s battle now!” said Kiawe.</p><p>“Wait, there’s a contest tomorrow?” said Ash. “Here?”</p><p>Misty glanced at him and tilted her head to the side. “Why… Oh, right, Brock mentioned you’re trying out the contest circuit. How’s it treating you?”</p><p>“You talk about me?” said Ash. Then he apparently abandoned the train of thought. “It’s going great!” He got out his ribbon case. “Look, I’ve already won the Viridian Ribbon!”</p><p>“One ribbon… You can do better!” said Misty. She smiled at him, though. “Guess I’ll have to watch the contest tomorrow after all. Ugh.”</p><p>Ash stuck his tongue out at her. “Yeah, and you can see me <em>win</em>.”</p><p>“I doubt it, but I’m sure it’ll at least be interesting. You never cease to surprise.” </p><p>“Shut <em>up</em>,” said Ash, hands on his hips. “I’ll show you!”</p><p>“Pika pikachu!”</p><p>Misty shrugged, then turned to Kiawe. He handed her the papers he’d picked up. “So, Kiawe, I take it you’re my challenger for the day?”</p><p>“Yes!” said Kiawe. “You’re strong, but I’ll be winning the Cerulean Badge.”</p><p>Misty smiled. “Bring it on!” Then she marched over to the door and shouted, “Hey! Lily! I need a battle judge!”</p><p>Kiawe tapped his foot. The battlefield was already the pool with rocks she’d fought Ash in during their field trip, so she didn’t bother changing it, just wandered over to her trainer’s box when she was done shouting and gestured Kiawe to his. </p><p>“Two on two battle, I think,” she said. Kiawe nodded and handed Litten to Incineroar, and then released Numel to stay by Ash. It stared at the water dubiously and backed up. Kiawe had already learned that it hated <em>hated</em> being wet, which made sense for a fire and ground type. And he could respect that in a pokemon! He sure wasn’t <em>anything</em> like Lana when it came to water. Give him a sunny day and flying with Charizard over a volcano any day. </p><p>“Go Kiawe!” cheered Ash, from the stands. Corsola had also decided to stick with him, and it was talking to Pikachu and Torterra. Which meant Kiawe had no idea who Misty was going to use. But that was half the fun!</p><p>“Nothing for me?” said Misty. “I see, I’ve been abandoned for your new friends.”</p><p>Ash pretended to look annoyed. “Kiawe thinks I’ll win my contest,” he said.</p><p>“Kiawe also thinks he’ll win his gym battle,” said Misty.</p><p>“I will!” said Kiawe.</p><p>“We’ll see about that!” said Misty. </p><p>Then one of Misty’s sisters finally opened the door, looking disheveled. “Misty,” she grumbled. “What.”</p><p>“I need a battle judge, I have a challenger here!” Misty tucked her hair behind her ear. “Come <em>on</em>, Lily, help me out!”</p><p>Lily leaned against the door. “I have an agonizing call with our set designer in five minutes about his genuinely atrocious paint choices. No.” She glared balefully around the room. “Oh, your boyfriend is here. He’s a Champion, isn’t he? He can judge.”</p><p>She shut the door behind herself without waiting for an answer. </p><p>“He is <em>not my boyfriend</em>!” shouted Misty at the closed door. “Ugh. Sorry about Lily. Ash, do you mind?”</p><p>“A Champion can judge gym battles?” said Ash. He got up. “Sure, but I didn’t know that was allowed.”</p><p>Misty rolled her eyes. “There’s no real rule on it, as far as I know,” she said. Kiawe examined the battlefield. There was a thin rim of rock that curved around the edge, big enough for one pokemon to stand on, and then the rest of it was a deep pool. He shivered. Turtonator wouldn’t be able to make it out if it fell down there. Marowak might be able, but it would be a close thing. “But you’re a League representative, so that’s good enough for me. You <em>do</em> know how to referee, right?”</p><p>Ash scowled at her as he climbed up to the judge’s spot. “Duh!”</p><p>“It’ll be over quickly,” said Kiawe. One way or another, he didn’t add. </p><p>“You know you can’t cheer for anyone if you’re judging, right?” said Misty. “I’m sure it’ll be very hard for you.”</p><p>“Are you both ready?” asked Ash, ignoring her entirely. They nodded. He grinned. “Alright! This two on two gym battle between Misty of Cerulean City, the gym leader, and Kiawe of Akala Island, the challenger, will now begin! Only the challenger can substitute pokemon, and the last pokemon standing will win the match. Go!”</p><p>He chopped his hand down.</p><p>“Turtonator, I need your strength!” said Kiawe, and threw the pokeball so that Turtonator landed on the edge of rock. It glanced around itself at the water, and then firmed its stance. It wouldn’t be moving through the whole battle, and Kiawe was okay with that. </p><p>“Starmie, my beauty star! Let’s go!” said Misty. Her starmie manifested purple and steady on her side of the rock, and then dove. </p><p>“Turtonator, let’s finish this fast! Use Focus Blast!” </p><p>The Focus Blast plowed through the water, dissipating as it hit. Starmie dodged easily. </p><p>“It has to come up to hit us at some point,” muttered Kiawe. “Use Focus Blast again!”</p><p>The Focus Blast dissipated again, and Starmie shot off a Water Gun from underwater that arced up and hit Turtonator directly in the chest. Kiawe winced. Maybe it didn’t have to come up after all. And Turtonator’s only ranged attacks were ineffective… </p><p>“Turtonator, return!” he called, and recalled Turtonator in a flash of red light. “Good job.” He switched out his pokeball. “Marowak, I’m counting on you!”</p><p>Misty nodded. “Good decision,” she said. “But will it be enough to beat my star?”</p><p>Marowak banged its club on the rock. </p><p>“Of course it will!” said Kiawe. “Marowak, your opponent’s underwater. Use Shadow Bone!”</p><p>Marowak spun its bone around, lighting it in green ghost-fire, and then dove with it held out in front of it. Luckily, the ghost-fire didn’t go out from water — it would take a ghost- or dark-type attack to do that — but Marowak obviously wasn’t built for swimming, and had barely managed to tag Starmie with the edge of it when Starmie knocked it right back out of the pool with another underwater Water Gun.</p><p>It slammed painfully into the rocks, wet and aching, and used its bone as a support to stand up. </p><p>Okay, that wouldn’t work. Misty’s pokemon knew the water way too well for him to have any chance. Which meant he had to get Starmie onto the rocks, instead. But how?</p><p>“Starmie!” said Misty. She clapped her hands together. “Show them how stunning your Thunderbolt is!”</p><p>“Wow, Misty, are you <em>sure</em> you don’t watch contests?” heckled Ash. </p><p>“Ash Ketchum, you’re judging this battle, not commentating it. Shut up,” said Misty back. “Now, Starmie!”</p><p>Starmie arced out of the water in a stunning leap and shot off a dazzling bright-yellow Thunderbolt. </p><p>“Bonemer—” But no, there wasn’t any ground to plant its bone in. “Marowak, dodge!”</p><p>But he’d called the command too late: and Marowak collapsed, sparking. </p><p>“Marowak is unable to battle!” announced Ash. He didn’t sound particularly upset. Rude of him. “Starmie wins!”</p><p>“Turtonator, you’re back up!” said Kiawe. Turtonator glanced around and looked generally displeased to see Starmie still in the pool, floating with just the tip of its star above the water. It glanced back at Kiawe. “Sorry,” said Kiawe. “It’s really strong!”</p><p>“Turtonator,” said Turtonator.</p><p>“Starmie my star,” said Misty, “you look a little tired. Use Recover!”</p><p>Oh, come on.</p><p>Starmie glowed, and the small mark left by Marowak’s one successful hit with Shadow Bone faded. </p><p>“Focus Blast!” said Kiawe. But Starmie ducked back underwater just in time. </p><p>“Thunderbolt again!” said Misty. Starmie jumped out of the water.</p><p>“Hit it with Focus Blast!” said Kiawe. </p><p>This time, the Focus Blast hit dead-on at the top of Starmie’s leap: but Turtonator couldn’t dodge the Thunderbolt.</p><p>“Tackle!” called Misty. </p><p>And Starmie knocked Turtonator into the water. </p><p>Kiawe followed it with his eyes. It was struggling to move, slowing down. Starmie was charging up another Water Gun, no. No… Turtonator couldn’t fight back like that. It couldn’t even breathe. It was too heavy.</p><p>“Turtonator, return!” said Kiawe, and caught it in red pokeball light. He took a deep breath, and tried not to let his disappointment show on his face. “I concede.”</p><p>And then he walked back over to the bleachers and picked up Litten. </p><p>“Good job,” said Misty. She recalled Starmie and walked over to him and looked him in the eyes. “I know you’re upset,” she said. He was, and he didn’t like it. “But we’re both type specialists, and one of the most important things about being a type specialist is knowing when you’re outmatched. You did very well.”</p><p>“So… that’s it?” said Kiawe. He pet Litten on the head and bit his lip. “That’s all?”</p><p>“Well, is it, Kiawe of Akala Island?” said Misty. “You don’t seem like the type to give up so easily!” She patted Corsola on the head and looked him in the eyes. “What do you think, is your challenge at the Cerulean Gym over? Or are you going to learn from this loss and challenge me again?”</p><p>“You mean I can try again? Then no way am I done!” he shouted. He threw a fist in the air. “The fire in my heart and the hearts of my pokemon will burn so hot all the water in this gym will evaporate by the time we’re done! The air will be as warm and dry as the winds above Wela Volcano’s crater!”</p><p>“That’s the spirit!” said Ash, wandering over to Melmetal and Rowlet with Pikachu clinging to his shoulder. “Kick her butt for me!”</p><p>“Shut up,” said Misty to him. Then she turned back to Kiawe. “Excellent choice, Kiawe.” She grinned, sharply. “I’ll be waiting for an exciting battle after tomorrow’s contest! After all, one of the <em>other</em> most important things about being a type specialist is learning to counter your weaknesses despite everything that stands against you.”</p><p>“And this time, I’ll win!” said Kiawe.</p><p>“Litten!” said Litten.</p><p>He looked down at it. “No, Litten, you’re too small,” he said. “Maybe in a few months, okay?”</p><p>“Lit…” said Litten.</p><p>Misty patted it on the head. “You’ll grow up soon enough, Litten.” She glanced at Kiawe. “Recently hatched, huh?”</p><p>“Yes,” he said. “It was so small. It’s still so small!”</p><p>“I know how it feels,” she said. “Just-hatched pokemon… There’s nothing more incredible in the world.” Then she clapped her hands together. “Well! Train hard for our rematch, Kiawe. I’m looking forward to it!” She leaned forward and whispered. “And don’t tell Ash I said this, but make sure to watch him closely during the contest tomorrow. He learned how to use the battlefield to his advantage when I wasn’t looking, and now it’s one of his greatest strengths. You could learn a lot!”</p><p>Kiawe nodded. “I’ll make sure to do so.”</p><p>“Are you talking about me?” said Ash. He stopped petting Rowlet, who complained sleepily. “You better not be talking about me.”</p><p>“Not at all!” said Misty. She glanced critically out the window and then clapped her hands together again. “Yeah, it’s totally late enough to close the gym. C’mon over for dinner, we’re ordering in ‘cause Daisy’s the only passable cook and she’s in a meeting ‘till later.”</p><p>She grabbed Corsola and sprinted towards the door, then waited for them to catch up.</p><p>Ash picked up her paperwork and waved it at her. “Forgetting something?”</p><p>“Ash Ketchum, I will uninvite you from my home and charge you interest on my bike.”</p><p> </p><p>They got to the gym early the next morning, because Misty had been volunteered by her sisters as the gym representative the Pokemon Activities Committee people could go to if they needed anything, and Misty had dragged Ash and Kiawe along to share in her misery. </p><p>That led to them getting involved in cleaning up the backstage area for coordinators — “my sisters, ugh, they never seem to think we’ll have guests” — taping signs to the wall, and setting up the reception table in the gym’s lobby. </p><p>Melmetal was a huge help when everyone realized it was more convenient to climb on it than to drag the gym’s one ladder around every time someone needed height, and Rowlet and Litten were passed around as moral support until Ash snatched Rowlet from the receptionist for some extra practice on their appeal. She’d frowned exaggeratedly and then asked for his contest pass so she could check him in before the lines started, as thanks for his help. Which was really nice of her!</p><p>Misty came and got him from the gym half an hour later, when coordinators were starting to arrive but the doors were still ages from being open for the audience. He’d been wondering how they’d seat everyone who came to watch, but it turned out the bleachers could extend all the way around the room if you needed them to. So cool! </p><p>Less cool was Misty glowering at him.</p><p>“I need to do a last-minute check on the battlefield,” she said. “So go away. Maybe you’ll know some of the people arriving?”</p><p>“Maybe,” said Ash, dubiously. “Have you guys had contests here before?”</p><p>“Yeah, we host one every few months,” answered Misty, pulling off her top to reveal a swimsuit underneath. Of course. “It was Violet’s idea. Now go <em>away</em>, I need to check the pool.”</p><p>“Fine,” said Ash, as she dove right in and released Dewgong to help her out. “Come on, Rowlet, Pikachu, let’s see if they need any more help out front.”</p><p>They didn’t need any more help out front. Ash sat down on a bench, pokemon-watching with Pikachu and wondering if Clementine would show up and be willing to talk to him. He was just deciding he should probably go backstage and wait there when a harp strummed and a tall silhouette stepped through the door and resolved under the Cerulean fluorescents into Nando.</p><p>Nando glanced around the room as Ash stood up, and then spotted Ash and walked over to meet him. “Well, if it isn’t Ash from Pallet Town,” he said, and strummed another chord as punctuation. “Why, I haven’t seen you in ages!”</p><p>“Alola, Nando!” said Ash, which made him tilt his head a little. “It’s been so long! Are you still doing gyms and contests? I didn’t know you were in Kanto!”</p><p>“Absolutely,” said Nando. He brushed some hair behind his ear. He looked basically the same as he did back in Sinnoh, except his cloak was probably new. “I can do nothing else but follow where my heart leads me, and my heart leads me to both the League and the Grand Festival. And you? Are you here to support a friend, Ash?”</p><p>“That’s awesome!” said Ash. He glanced at Pikachu. “And believe it or not, <em>I’m</em> actually being a coordinator right now!”</p><p>Nando’s face lit up. “How wonderful! I look forward to facing you in the battle round.” He strummed his harp again. “You’ll find me much improved from last time we battled.”</p><p>“Yeah! Same here!”</p><p>“Well, I’d best check in, then. We will catch up later, yes?” said Nando. Ash  nodded. “Good luck to both you and Pikachu.”</p><p>“Thanks!” said Ash. “Good luck to you too!”</p><p>Nando went to get in line, and Ash tracked down each of his team who were busy helping out and let them know he’d be in the backstage, so they could return themselves if they wanted or find Kiawe or Misty and get a seat with them. None of his team wanted to stay in their pokeballs today, which was pretty cool! And Misty’d promised that she could find a spot for everyone, even Torterra, which was totally awesome of her.</p><p>Nando was backstage too by the time registration closed, strumming a gentle melody for his kricketune to harmonize with. And a few minutes after that, when they’d closed the backstage doors and opened the audience doors, someone started shouting in the lobby. “What do you <em>mean</em> I’ve missed registration! Not <em>again</em>! This cannot happen to me, Jessamara, Queen of Kantonian Contests! You <em>will</em> let me into the backstage this instant!”</p><p>Ash put his ear to the door, which let him hear Misty, who was almost shouting but not quite. “Shoulda gotten here earlier, then!” she said. “Tough breaks. Stop harassing this lady or I’ll kick you out of my gym myself!”</p><p>“Why you little Twerpette—!”</p><p>There was a scuffle. Ash thought he heard Psyduck, which only made the situation worse, and then the screaming died down. </p><p>He considered going out to check, but he figured Misty had it handled. She was good at things like that. </p><p>And anyway, it would take him till his turn in the appeals round to manage to wake up Rowlet, who had gone to sleep as soon as he turned his back. Better get started on that.</p><p> </p><p>Misty had asked Kiawe to save her a seat, so as soon as she made into the stands — right as Lilian was announcing the start of the contest and introducing the judges — he scooped Litten off the bleacher bench next to him and relocated it to his lap. They were sitting in the top row, by the aisle, so that Torterra and Turtonator and the other larger pokemon could settle themselves behind the bleachers. </p><p>Watching the appeals round with her was much more engaging than watching it alone. For all she said she didn’t care about contests, she had a good eye for them, and kept up a running commentary about what she thought worked well and what didn’t. </p><p>“The judges will be looking not only at beauty and skill,” she explained, “but also at how well the coordinators use the water battlefield, because the Cerulean City Contest is relatively unique among contests.” She counted off on her fingers. “I think there’re only five other contests that regularly use a water battlefield? Don’t quote me on that, this really isn’t my thing.”</p><p>Kiawe nodded. “Ash doesn’t have any water-types. Will that put him at a disadvantage?”</p><p>“Yeah, a little,” said Misty. “I wouldn’t count him out, though. The pool is only part of the battlefield, remember?” She pointed. “There’s also the rock edge, and I think he said he was using Rowlet?” Kiawe nodded. “So there’s the air, too.”</p><p>A coordinator with a shedinja used Shadow Sneak to cross the pool a bunch of times, drawing a web of shadow across the top of it.</p><p>“Ash’s never been great at the whole beauty thing, but he’s creative enough to make up for it,” added Misty. “I’ll bet there’ll be more than a few coordinators without water-types who get through to the battle round. There’s always some.”</p><p>Kiawe didn’t point out that she clearly knew her way around a contest, because that would have been like telling Lillie a year ago that she clearly was, actually, afraid of pokemon. The man with the harp Kiawe had spotted Ash talking to in the lobby had his kricketot using Sing in a way that created a pattern of ripples and reflected light on the surface of the pool, which got a lot of praise from the judges.</p><p>Someone with a sealeo froze the surface of the pool, blasted holes in it with Water Gun, and then performed a complex underwater juggling act through those holes, someone with a finneon had put together an underwater light show with finneon’s natural colors and careful use of Flash, someone with a feebas had it doing flips out of the water until the battlefield looked like a massive fountain, and Kiawe was starting to get why water-types had an advantage here.</p><p>Then it was Ash’s turn. </p><p>He stepped up to the field confidently, back straight. “Rowlet! Let’s give them a show!”</p><p>He threw Rowlet’s pokeball and was immediately surrounded by a cloud of white smoke. Right. Seals. Kiawe didn’t like them very much, mostly because he’d gotten some glitter from one of them in his mouth on the way to Rota and had had a cough for <em>hours</em> after. </p><p>The smoke cleared on Rowlet, hovering in the air above the pool, thankfully awake. </p><p>Ash threw out an arm with a flourish. “Rowlet, use Seed Bomb!”</p><p>Rowlet used Seed Bomb, sending its everstone flying high in the air, and then swooping to catch it just before it hit the water. It did a showy little twirl — although it was hard to tell because of how round it was — and tossed the everstone again, and then again caught it. </p><p>“They were practicing this off the side of cliffs,” said Kiawe to Misty. </p><p>“Typical,” said Misty.</p><p>Rowlet tossed it a few more times, throwing farther and waiting closer and closer to the last minute to catch it every time, and then it was all the way across the battlefield from Ash. It did a flip, turning to face him. He flung out both his arms. “Seed Bomb, one last time!”</p><p>Rowlet shot its everstone at him— </p><p>“Feather Dance!”</p><p>—and darted to catch it so quickly it left behind a speed double. </p><p>Well, a Feather Dance double, that fell apart into loose feathers as Rowlet caught the everstone inches from Ash’s forehead, did one last neat little flip, landed on his head, and immediately fell asleep. </p><p>Ash bowed, craning his neck upwards to keep Rowlet from falling off, and Lilian said, “What an exciting, death-defying appeal from Ash of Pallet Town and his rowlet! Everyone, let’s give them a round of applause as they leave the stage, clearly exhausted from all the excitement. And now we welcome Rose Marie, of Celadon City!”</p><p>“Hm,” said Misty, as Rose Marie and her zubat did something with Poison Fang and Astonish. “Not bad. Putting himself in the appeal so obviously is a little risky — some judges are more hardline about contests being about the pokemon and the pokemon only than others — but our Nurse Joy thinks it’s fine as long as the focus is still on the pokemon, so it shouldn’t lose him anything.”</p><p>Kiawe nodded. Appeals were a little like that time they’d all had to put together dance routines with their pokemon for class. Lillie and Snowy’s ice skating dance would definitely have gotten them through <em>this</em> appeals round. “You think he has a chance?”</p><p>“Hard to say,” said Misty. “He used the field a little, but it definitely wasn’t the best he could have done. On the other hand that bit with the Feather Dance was unexpected and—” She threw her hands up. “What am I saying! I’ve spent way too much time watching these things, ugh. Violet’s monologues are getting in my head!”</p><p>“I guess I’ll wait and see, then,” said Kiawe. </p><p>There were a few more appeals after Rose Marie, but then the twenty-eight entrants had all gone and Lilian called intermission while the judges huddled together to determine which eight would pass.</p><p>Misty got up, to check over the pool for the battle round, and Kiawe stretched a little and squashed the impulse to grab his team and go train until intermission was done. He’d get totally absorbed and miss Ash in the battle round!</p><p>Instead, he pet Litten and tried to take Misty’s advice about learning from the contest. He would beat her tomorrow. He would!</p><p> </p><p>Ash hadn’t really expected to make it through the appeals round. Not because of Rowlet at all, who’d done everything they practiced perfectly even though it had been asleep two minutes before the performance, but just ‘cause he’d watched everyone else’s appeals and so many of them were <em>planned</em> for a water field. If Misty were judging he’d definitely not have made it through!</p><p>But the judges liked Rowlet enough that Ash was in the battle round, and his first opponent was a boy named Rio, who was sitting in the corner talking to a pokeball. </p><p>Nando had also made it through, and they congratulated each other on their appeals before Nando was called first to the stage, where he won a battle against the coordinator who’d used a finneon for the appeals round. They were using it again in the battle round, but Nando countered everything it threw at him with Kricketune and won on points after putting Finneon to sleep. </p><p>Then a girl with a dewgong won with a flashy display of Aurora Beam against a kid with a pidgeotto, and then a kid with a surskit beat a boy with a bellsprout that could somehow skate on water, which was a pretty awesome battle. Took bad Bellsprout hadn’t won that one, Ash would have liked to battle it himself!</p><p>And then it was Ash’s turn. He stepped up to the trainer’s box and took a second to be really glad seals were optional in Kanto, because if they hadn’t been he would have had to get confetti or something and throw it by hand while Pikachu jumped off his arm and ran onto the rocky edge of the field. “Let’s give them a show, buddy!”</p><p>From Rio’s side, water cascaded out of a splash seal and revealed a gyarados. </p><p>“Carrie, time to shine!” </p><p>“Awesome!” said Ash. “A gyarados!” Huh. Hadn’t Rio had a feebas in the appeals round? Neat.</p><p>“That’s right!” said Rio. “And my pokemon and I are stronger together, so we’ll definitely win!”</p><p>“You took the words right out of my mouth. Pikachu, you ready to go?”</p><p>“Pika!”</p><p>Hey, he’d fought Misty’s gyarados here before, that was so cool!</p><p>“Battle begin!”</p><p>“Carrie! Start us off with Dive!”</p><p>Carrie dove with perfect form down into the pool. The judges took off a few of Ash’s points.</p><p>“Quick, Pikachu! Thunderbolt!”</p><p>Before Carrie could surface, Pikachu blasted the water with a high-intensity Thunderbolt. Carrie floated limply to the surface as Rio’s points dropped, and then it blinked its eyes open. </p><p>“Payback!”</p><p>Purple energy concentrated around its mouth, into a globe that faded into deeper violet towards the core. It was surrounded by smaller purple rings that rippled and faded, and it was streaking straight towards Pikachu.</p><p>“Dodge!” called Ash. Pikachu jumped. The Payback orb streaked past it and then veered around. “Iron Tail!”</p><p>Pikachu twisted in the air and smacked the orb right back to Carrie, where it exploded. Pikachu landed. </p><p>“And it looks like Rio’s gyarados is unable to battle, which means pikachu wins, sending Ash to the second round with another victory by knockout!” said Lilian, as Pikachu ran back towards Ash and jumped up to his shoulder. “If you didn’t catch the Viridian Contest a few weeks back, you might not know that Ash won all his victories there with remarkable speed and remarkable power. Will he sweep this battle round too? There’s only one way to find out, so let’s determine the second round matchups!”</p><p>In the second round, Nando went against the kid with the surskit, who couldn’t stand up to Kricketune’s double assault of Silver Wind and Bug Buzz, and was eventually knocked underwater. Nando was talking to them about bug types when they came back backstage, though, so at least they were friends. </p><p>Ash glanced at Pikachu. “You ready, buddy?”</p><p>“Pika pikachu!”</p><p>Nando turned and waved at them. “I’ll see you in the final round, Ash.”</p><p>“You bet!”</p><p>This round, they were fighting a girl named Seline, who’d done that awesome appeal with a sealeo and underwater juggling earlier. She was using a dewgong for the battle round, and she released it with a splash of silver sparkles that caught the light. </p><p>“Dewgong,” she said. She was wearing a sequined dress that sparkled so much it was hard to look at. “Hail, please.”</p><p>Dewgong looked up and breathed out one long, visible breath that coalesced into into a sparkly gray cloud above. Big pellets of hail started hitting the pool and the rock around it, <em>tak-tak-tak</em>, and then Seline had Dewgong shoot off a wide, low-power Aurora Beam to complete the image and turn the hail all rainbow. Ash’s points dipped sharply. </p><p>“Alright, Pikachu! We can’t let them beat us!” </p><p>“Pika pika!”</p><p>Ash threw out a hand. “Use Quick Attack!”</p><p>“Underwater,” called Seline. Dewgong slipped into the pool. “Use Ice Beam!”</p><p>“Dodge!” Pikachu avoided the Ice Beam. It froze a chunk of the pool instead, which Pikachu jumped onto at Ash’s waved hand. It slipped a little, but firmed itself.</p><p>“Use Signal Beam to break it up,” said Seline. </p><p>“Get there first with Iron Tail!” </p><p>Pikachu’s Iron Tail scattered the chunk of ice into a bunch of smaller floes, and then cut right through the middle of the Signal Beam, splitting it in two around Pikachu. </p><p>Dewgong dove down again. Pikachu landed on one of the little ice floes. </p><p>Ash thought quickly. Pikachu could just Thunderbolt the pool again, but— this was a contest. And they’d already done that once today. </p><p>(Clementine, turning away without speaking, dry-eyed. Agatha, telling him to adapt.)</p><p>He had a better idea, anyway.</p><p>“Pikachu!” he called. “Use Iron Tail on the water!”</p><p>Pikachu leapt from the ice floe to the rock edge of the pool, and then jumped again, so high its head almost touched the cloud of hail. </p><p>Then it brought its tail down on the pool. </p><p>Water splashed up, and up, and up, hitting the cloud and eating it, and Dewgong got knocked up into the air too, flailing.</p><p>“Now!” </p><p>Pikachu shot off a Thunderbolt. Kicked off one of the ice floes flying through the air and landed on the rock edge. </p><p>And Dewgong, along with half the pool’s worth of water, hit the bottom of the pool.</p><p>Ash stood tense until Lilian declared it unable to battle and Pikachu jumped into his arms. “One more win, buddy! And then we’ll have our second ribbon!”</p><p>“Some exciting tactics from Ash and Pikachu as they snatch their second win of the day from Seline’s icy grace,” announced Lilian. “Now we’ll be taking a ten minute intermission before the final match between Ash from Pallet Town and his powerful Pikachu and Wandering Minstrel Nando and his elegant Kricketune! Who will come out on top? We’ll find out in just ten more minutes, so hold tight!”</p><p>Back in the backstage area, Ash found Nando, who looked at him and frowned a little. Kricketune rubbed its hands together in greeting, and Ash said hi.</p><p>“That was a good battle,” said Nando.</p><p>“Thanks!” said Ash. “You were totally awesome too! Kricketune, your Silver Wind is amazing!”</p><p>“Tuune,” said Kricketune. </p><p>“Why thank you,” said Nando. He almost said something, and then decided against it. “I look forward to an exciting battle in our final round. I cannot wait to see how your League experience holds up against my own on the contest stage.”</p><p>“Yeah!” said Ash. “This is gonna be great!”</p><p>They caught up a bit more over the next ten minutes. Nando been in Hoenn, before his current run in Kanto, and he’d actually met Serena and May! Which was totally awesome. Apparently they were doing great, and still traveling together like they’d been doing while Ash was in Alola! </p><p>Ash had just gotten started talking about Kiawe and about the Pokemon School when the stagehand — who was the receptionist from earlier’s twin sister — came backstage to get them both for their match. </p><p>“Good luck!” said Ash. “But we’ll win!”</p><p>“And the same to you,” said Nando.</p><p>Ash was getting used to the contest stage, he realized, as he stepped back into the trainer’s box. It wasn’t that different to being in any other tournament, except for how it was indoors when most of the tournaments he’d been at were open-air. But the crowd, he decided, was pretty much the same. A bit less ready to shout at anything that happened, because it was so easy to miss things with how short contest battles were, but basically the same. </p><p>He scanned it for Kiawe and Misty and his team and waved at them, and then glanced back at the battlefield. All the water was back in the pool — they musta got Misty to do something at second intermission, because he’d overheard her telling the Pokemon Activities Committee people this morning how they were not ever allowed to touch anything whatsoever about the gym’s mechanics ever — and Nando was on the other end, plucking idly at his harp. </p><p>“Pikachu, Nando’s tough!” he said. Pikachu nodded. They were going to have to watch out for Sing. And there was no telling what new tricks Nando had worked out since they’d last battled him. This was so exciting! “I have a few ideas, so keep your ears open!”</p><p>“Pi-pikachu.” Pikachu nodded, and jumped down in front of him. </p><p>“And now that our finalists are done their pre-battle pep talks,” said Lilian, “let’s get this show on the road, and let’s! Get! Busy!”</p><p>“Kricketune, I need your help,” said Nando. Kricketune emerged from its pokeball in a shower of seal-made music notes, and posed.</p><p>“Pikachu, let’s give them a show!” Pikachu darted onto the rock edge of the battlefield. “Start us off with Thunderbolt!”</p><p>“Silver Wind, please,” said Nando.</p><p>The Thunderbolt seared through the air, but Kricketune crossed its arms, glowed briefly, and then opened them, letting fly a sharp volley of Silver Wind that sliced right through the Thunderbolt and left pale yellow sparkles to fall to the water. Ash’s points dipped. </p><p>“So he can counter ranged attacks,” muttered Ash. He threw out an arm. “Electroweb!”</p><p>Pikachu built and tossed the Electroweb, and it spread in the air into one of the patterns Pikachu had been working on lately. Ash had spotted a cool rug in the castle at Rota and pointed out that it would be pretty cool if Pikachu could do that with Electroweb, turn it into cool patterns, and Pikachu had been so excited about it. So now it had a really cool Electroweb!</p><p>This one had a pikachu-tail pattern.</p><p>That knocked Nando’s points down a little, but he seemed unbothered. Before Pikachu could get another attack in, he’d had Kricketune shatter the web with a quick Fury Cutter, and then he said, “Now, Sing.”</p><p>Kricketune rubbed its arm-scythes together gently to make a slow, mournful sound. As the song intensified, Kricketune started to glow, and then the glow split off into a swarm of golden music notes, all headed for Pikachu. </p><p>Ash looked at them. No, that wouldn’t work. No, they weren’t solid enough. No, Nando could counter that. Maybe… </p><p>“Dive!” he said.</p><p>Pikachu jumped into the pool.</p><p>The notes whirled together in the air like a gold-colored Leaf Storm — huh, that was a thought, maybe Torterra could — and disappeared one by one into mist, but they didn’t have a target, so the judges ruled it even and took off points from both of them. Which meant Nando was still ahead. </p><p>Pikachu surfaced after a bit, just one gasped breath. It was in the middle of the pool.</p><p>“Pikachu, use Electroweb on the surface of the water!”</p><p>Pikachu did, stretching another one of those patterns — butterfree wings this time — across the surface of the water. </p><p>“Build a Bug Buzz,” said Nando.</p><p>“Quick Attack!” said Ash. Pikachu glowed white and dashed across the suspended Electroweb. Electric platforms. He’d have to make sure Professor Kukui saw the footage from this battle! </p><p>When Pikachu was nearly at Kricketune, though, Kricketune released its Bug Buzz in ripples of red sound, stopping Pikachu’s momentum as the Electroweb fell apart beneath it. </p><p>“Get back!” said Ash. Pikachu braced against the last of the Electroweb and jumped backwards. Let the Bug Buzz carry it. Landed on the rocks, on Ash’s side of the battlefield.</p><p>Ash snuck a glance at the scoreboard; the Electroweb had helped, but Nando was still firmly ahead.</p><p>“Iron Tail!” said Ash, gesturing forward.</p><p>“Catch that,” said Nando, and Kricketune stood ready. But Pikachu wasn’t aiming at Kriketune. Instead, it launched itself across the pool and hit with Iron Tail on the rock right <em>below</em> where Kricketune stood. </p><p>They both tumbled into the water.</p><p>“Thunderbolt!” said Ash. Pikachu obliged, and lit the pool golden. It and Kricketune both winced. But Ash had figured Thunderbolt underwater would have recoil like a Volt Tackle, which Pikachu used to use all the time, and just like he thought, Pikachu shook it off really fast. </p><p>Kricketune was a bit slower. But: </p><p>“Swim with Fury Cutter!” said Nando. Kricketune turned its scythe-arms Fury Cutter red and zoomed towards Pikachu with a shockingly speedy butterfly stroke. They must have really practiced for the water battlefield! Kricketune was supposed to be a bug type!</p><p>“Pikachu, dodge!”</p><p>Pikachu swam towards the rock as fast as it could — which was pretty fast! —, but Kricketune caught up to it and clipped it with Fury Cutter, knocking it the rest of the way, and—</p><p>The timer went off. </p><p>Pikachu scrambled up onto the rock, shaking itself off, and then reached down and gave Kricketune a hand. </p><p>Ash looked up at the scoreboard. Nando was still ahead.</p><p>“And it looks like the Wandering Minstrel Nando wins this one on points!” announced Lilian. “What an <em>electrifying</em> finale to this Cerulean City Contest! Let’s give both of our finalists a round of applause for a truly magnificent battle!”</p><p>So he’d lost. Ash could deal with a loss. </p><p>He went to shake Nando’s hand.</p><p>He could deal with a loss. He just had to learn from it. He had to figure out why he’d lost.</p><p>“Thank you for that excellent battle,” said Nando. “I hope we get to match wills again someday.”</p><p>Clementine, turning away. Agatha, telling him to adapt. Silver Wind, scattering Thunderbolt into sparkling light. What had gotten Ash the most points this battle? The Electrowebs.</p><p>“No, thank you,” said Ash, and he meant it. “I learned a lot from you! We’ll <em>definitely</em> battle again. In the Grand Festival!”</p><p>Nando smiled at him. “I shall await that day.”</p><p>“Yeah! Me too!”</p><p> </p><p>“So, we both lost,” said Kiawe. They were sitting in the empty bleachers. Ash had said his goodbyes and good lucks to Nando after the contest ended, and then he’d hung out with Misty and Kiawe for awhile until the rest of the audience and the rest of the coordinators had left, at which point they were interrupted in the middle of a discussion about the finer points of where to find pyukumuku and how to throw them back in the ocean by the receptionist, who asked Misty, a little nervously, if she had any pointers for tear-down and load-out. </p><p>So they ended up helping with that, too, which was pretty fun actually, and then Misty went outside to argue with someone about something and left Ash and Kiawe sitting in the bleachers, which were back to their normal size and shape at the ends of the battlefield. Ash was folding one of Misty’s paper “DO NOT ENTER” signs into a paper airplane.</p><p>“Yeah,” said Ash. He frowned at the pool. Nando was really good, but that wasn’t the only reason he’d won. Ash had messed up, too. And he was starting to understand how. “Guess we did.”</p><p>“I’m used to losing to you,” said Kiawe, which made Ash feel a little guilty but which also wasn’t really accurate, because Ash also lost all the time to him. “But. It’s different, losing to a gym leader.”</p><p>“Yeah,” said Ash. “’Course. I mean, losing to a gym leader means you’re not good enough yet to win, right? Which just means you gotta get better. But it still hurts!”</p><p>“Misty <em>destroyed</em> me,” said Kiawe, which was true.</p><p>To make him feel better, Ash said, “So did Nando.”</p><p>“You got some hits in,” said Kiawe. “He won, but you totally could have beat him if you’d had more time.”</p><p>Ash shook his head. “But this was a contest, and in contest rules, he had me on the ropes the whole fight. I <em>never</em> was in control, not even when I got a hit in, because I <em>wasn’t</em> thinking of it as a contest.”</p><p>Kiawe tilted his head a little.</p><p>“Even when I attacked or he got hit,” Ash explained, because he’d been turning the battle over in his head for hours now, “he turned it around so that it became beautiful, because he was fighting a contest battle and that’s how they work. And because I wasn’t fighting a contest battle, ‘cause instead I was fighting a regular battle, I never stood a chance.”</p><p>“So he won because you two were fighting totally different battles?”</p><p>Ash nodded. “And I was fighting the wrong one. Like if someone tried to fight a Grand Trial battle in the Masked Royal’s ring.”</p><p>Kiawe also nodded. “So you need to learn to fight his battle instead of yours.”</p><p>“Yeah!” said Ash. “Then I’ll beat him for sure!”</p><p>And maybe he’d see Clementine again and be able to say sorry for their match last time, because Lilian had been trying to tell him that exactly in her commentary this whole time, and Agatha too, and now Ash felt kinda stupid for not realizing it. Of course contest battles were different to regular battles. That was the whole point! That was <em>why</em> he’d not wanted to do contests when Brock first suggested it. But then he’d stepped up to the battlefield and forgotten all about it.</p><p>He turned and looked at Kiawe instead of the battlefield. Misty had turned it back into a normal dirt battlefield earlier once she checked that Ash and Nando hadn’t ruined the pool too much aside from the chunk of rock Pikachu had smashed. </p><p>“So, d’you have a plan for fighting Misty yet?” he asked. </p><p>Kiawe made a thinking noise. “Not quite. I have a few ideas, but…”</p><p>“Then we should train! So you can perfect it!”</p><p>“You’ll battle me?” said Kiawe. </p><p>“’Course!” said Ash. He stood up. “And I just had the best idea! I’m gonna run to the pokemon center and ask Professor Oak to send Buizel over! Then it can teach me what it knows about contest battles that Dawn taught it and also you can have a fight with one of my water pokemon! C’mon, Kiawe, it’ll be great! You’ll love Buizel!”</p><p> </p><p>Kiawe woke up later than usual the next morning. He left Litten to its sleep and wandered into Misty’s kitchen from the living room where him and Ash had slept — there were two couches, so it worked out pretty well — to find Ash pouring himself some cereal, a little frazzled like Pikachu had woken him with Thunderbolt again. Misty was still asleep apparently, but Lily, Daisy, and Violet were there, arguing mildly with each other about something to do with their water opera over coffee, and Marowak was trying to reach the pokemon food. Ash had already given the pokemon breakfast, so Kiawe wasn’t getting tricked by that.</p><p>“Alola,” said Kiawe, rubbing sleep out of his eyes. </p><p>“Alola,” answered Ash.</p><p>“Maro,” said Marowak, reaching with its bone. Pikachu laughed at it.</p><p>“Good morning,” said Lily, Daisy, and Violet absently. Lily added, “You’ll have to excuse my little sister, she needs her beauty sleep to keep up what looks she has left.”</p><p>Kiawe thought that she couldn’t possibly be a good older sister if she insulted her younger sister like that. He would never, never, <em>never</em> say anything like that about Mimo!</p><p>Misty took that moment to walk in, though, dragging her hand through her hair. “You’re the one who looks like a vileplume, Lily,” she announced. “I’m never liaisoning another contest again.”</p><p>“Welcome back to the land of the living,” said Violet. She handed Misty a mug from the cupboard. “You say that every time.”</p><p>“Thanks for yesterday,” added Daisy. “I’ll take the next one.”</p><p>“Thank Ho-Oh,” said Misty. “Good morning, Ash, Kiawe. Sorry about my sisters. I hope they’re not being horrid to you.”</p><p>“Alola,” said Ash. He waved. “You ready for Kiawe to beat you in a rematch?”</p><p>“Maybe after lunch,” said Misty, groaning sleepily. “Here, Kiawe, you want some tea? Coffee?”</p><p>Kiawe wanted tea, so they ate breakfast and then Misty showed them around Cerulean City for a bit. Kiawe didn’t like it. He missed Alola’s cities. </p><p>She took them to a little restaurant she liked for lunch, though, which was very kind of her even if rest of the people in the restaurant stared at Marowak the whole time, and then they all went back to the gym, snagging Violet along the way to be the battle judge because Ash wanted to watch and Misty wanted to get Violet back for making her deal with the contest yesterday. Even though Misty had pretty obviously had a lot of fun.</p><p>Kiawe knew some siblings acted like this, but he didn’t get it. He’d do <em>anything</em> for Mimo!</p><p>But enough of that. He had a gym battle to win.</p><p>“I hope you’re ready, Kiawe,” said Misty, from her box. The battlefield was the pool again. “I won’t go easy on you just because you lost last time!”</p><p>“My heart burns hotter than the fires of Wela Volcano!” answered Kiawe. “Bring it on!”</p><p>“Go Kiawe!” cheered Ash. Lycanroc and Numel were both behind him in the bleachers, probably complaining together about how much they both hated being wet.</p><p>Violet sighed and raised her hand in the air. “This gym battle between Kiawe of Akala Island, the challenger, and Misty of Cerulean City, the gym leader, will now commence. Each trainer will use two pokemon, and the battle will be over when either trainer’s pokemon are unable to continue. Additionally, only the challenger may substitute pokemon.” She rolled her eyes. “And for some reason, I’m judging.”</p><p>“It’s because you’re a gym leader, Violet,” said Misty. Then she threw a pokeball. “Now, Starmie my beauty star! Come on out!”</p><p>“Turtonator, we trained for this!” </p><p>Turtonator landed on the rocky edge, and Starmie splashed into the pool. </p><p>“Begin!” called Violet.</p><p>“No time to lose, Turtonator! You know what we practiced!” said Kiawe. Turtonator nodded, standing ready. “Then, like the fire at the heart of Wela Volcano, become a raging fire and <em>burn!</em>” He made the pose. “Use <em>Inferno Overdrive!</em>”</p><p>Turtonator breathed in, looked down at the pool, and breathed out blue-hot fire for fifteen long seconds.</p><p>When it stopped, the flames cleared to Starmie standing, wobbly, at the bottom of a swimming pool that only had an inch or two of water left in it.</p><p>“Yes!” shouted Kiawe. “We did it!”</p><p>“Clever,” praised Misty. “That’s certainly one way to turn the battlefield to your advantage. But we’re not done yet! Starmie, Recover!”</p><p>Starmie glowed. </p><p>“Turtonator, there’s no way Starmie can totally heal! Not from a z-move! Use Focus Blast!”</p><p>“Thunderbolt!” called Misty, and the two attacks met in the middle. </p><p>“Knock it down with Water Gun!” said Misty.</p><p>“Shell Smash!” said Kiawe. “And dodge!” Turtonator used Shell Smash, and, newly quick, darted out of the way of Water Gun. “Now get down there yourself!”</p><p>It ran down the rocks and landed with a splash, right behind Starmie, who spun around. </p><p>“Water Gun!”</p><p>“Flamethrower!”</p><p>The attacks met and turned to steam instantly, which made both Starmie and Turtonator wince. But Turtonator was strong, and Starmie had stood through the whole pool evaporating earlier, so neither of them fell.</p><p>“Now use Tackle!”</p><p>Starmie jumped. </p><p>“Shell Trap!”</p><p>Turtonator spun around, so Starmie’s Tackle hit its spikes.</p><p>And Turtonator staggered. But Starmie fell.</p><p>“Starmie is unable to battle!” announced Violet. “Turtonator wins!”</p><p>“Turtonator,” said Turtonator.</p><p>“That was awesome, Kiawe! So fast!” said Ash.</p><p>“Lit lit lit! Litten!”</p><p>Misty recalled Starmie. “You shone like the sun, my star,” she said, to its pokeball. “Now, Dewgo—”</p><p>Psyduck released itself. </p><p>It landed on the edge of Misty’s platform, then tripped and plummeted into the into the mostly empty pool.</p><p>“Turto?” said Turtonator.</p><p>Misty shrugged. </p><p>“Psyduck it is!” she said. “You alright down there, Psyduck?”</p><p>“Duck…” said Psyduck, straightening up slowly. It looked like it had landed right on its head. That had to hurt.</p><p>“Oh, score!” said Misty, making a fist. “Psyduck, Confusion!”</p><p>Before she could even finish speaking, Psyduck, holding its head in its hands, used Confusion. Turtonator floated into the air, helpless, — “Turtonator, no!” — and then smashed to the ground, out cold. </p><p>If it hadn’t been for Shell Smash, it would have stood through that. But the speed from Shell Smash was what had let it take on Starmie. </p><p>“Turtonator is unable to battle. Psyduck wins. Misty, I can’t believe you’re using that menace.”</p><p>“I can’t believe <em>you’re</em> running commentary when you should be judging,” said Misty back. “Great job, Psyduck!”</p><p>Psyduck moaned miserably.</p><p>Kiawe bit his lip. “Turtonator, return!” He looked down at its pokeball. “You did your part excellently. Now, Marowak! Let’s finish this!”</p><p>Marowak hit the bottom of the pool with a <em>splash</em>. “Maro maro!” it said, waving its bone.</p><p>“Go Marowak!” shouted Ash. “You can totally beat Psyduck!”</p><p>“Duck,” moaned Psyduck.</p><p>“Use Water Gun!” shouted Misty. </p><p>“Block and use Shadow Bone!” Marowak spun its bone, scattering the Water Gun into droplets, and then sped towards Psyduck and smacked it back with ghost-fire. It groaned some more. Kiawe almost felt bad.</p><p>“Psyduck, use Disable.”</p><p>Blue rings from Psyduck’s hunched body hit Marowak. Tapu Lele. Well, even if Shadow Bone wasn’t an option, he could use something else. Something that hit harder. “Marowak, Flare Blitz!” </p><p>“Psyduck, use Psychic!”</p><p>Psyduck’s eyes glowed, and Marowak was hitting the wall. </p><p>“Water Gun!”</p><p>“No way! Get back in there with Flare Blitz!”</p><p>Marowak ran, right into the Water Gun, and then right into Psyduck. Who fell over backwards and hit its head on the ground. </p><p>It staggered slowly upright, giving Marowak a chance to breathe. Hitting its head gave Psyduck a headache, which made it powerful. He remembered that from Misty’s battle against Lana and Mallow. But maybe…</p><p>“Confusion!”</p><p>Marowak was in the air, and then on the ground. </p><p>“Marowak, can you still battle?”</p><p>“Maro maro maro!” said Marowak. It slammed its club into the ground.</p><p>“Then it’s all or nothing! Hit as hard as you can with Iron Head!”</p><p>“Maro!” said Marowak, and charged. Misty’s eyes widened.</p><p>And Marowak headbutted Psyduck so hard it skidded backwards in the water before it fell to the ground with one last splash and lay still. </p><p>“Psyduck is unable to battle!” said Violet, already turning towards the judging platform’s stairs. “Which means Kiawe wins and I can leave. Finally.”</p><p>Psyduck staggered to its feet, woozy, and Misty briefly put her face in her hands before returning it with a compliment and a request to please sleep off its headache.</p><p>Kiawe looked down at Marowak. “Amazing work,” he said. “Thank you so much!”</p><p>Marowak looked at the water pooled around its feet, spun its club a little to dry it off, and then returned itself. Kiawe couldn’t blame it. He didn’t want to be wet either.</p><p>He and Misty met up in the bleachers, where Incineroar handed him a very excited Litten and Numel glanced him over to make <em>sure</em> he wasn’t going to get it wet and then came and nudged him with its head. </p><p>“Awesome job!” said Ash. “Evaporating the whole pool? So cool! And it worked!” He glanced at Misty and stuck out his tongue. “You were pretty cool too, I guess.”</p><p>“Ash Ketchum, I know your mother’s phone number by heart,” said Misty. </p><p>Kiawe thought about the way she interacted with her sisters, and compared it to the way she interacted with Ash, and wondered if that was just how she talked to people she thought of as family. Which was still totally foreign to him, but she was foreign, so it made sense. He guessed. Oh, Violet had already disappeared to wherever she was going.</p><p>“Kiawe!” Misty said. “Thank you for an excellent battle. I don’t know if I’ll be seeing many challengers with the sheer power needed to get rid of my entire pool, but I’ll definitely be on the lookout!” She reached into her pocket and held out her badge. “I’m proud to present you with the Cascade Badge!”</p><p>Kiawe took it, and stared at it, and showed it to Numel and Litten, and stared at it. “Thank you very much,” he said. “I… learned a lot.”</p><p>“Glad to hear it!” said Misty. “From one type specialist to another, that’s what my gym is for.”</p><p> </p><p>They left Cerulean City early the next morning. Misty got on the bus to the outskirts of town with them because “if there’s one place I won’t get lost and I know <em>you</em> will, it’s my hometown” and then they stood by the side of the road. Violet had informed them there was a contest in Rosemary town within the next week or so, so that’s where they were headed next, and then after that to Saffron City for Kiawe’s next badge.</p><p>“Bye Misty!” said Ash. “We gotta have another rematch when there’s water back in the pool!”</p><p>“Bye Ash, bye Pikachu. Thanks for making that contest tolerable,” said Misty. “And Kiawe, good luck with the rest of your gym battles. I’m sure you’ll learn a lot!”</p><p>“Thank you,” said Kiawe. “I’ll do my best.”</p><p>“Don’t get killed by your sisters!” said Ash.</p><p>“If anyone does any murder, it will be me, don’t worry,” said Misty.</p><p>“That wasn’t what I was worrying about,” said Ash.</p><p>Misty huffed. “Well, I was going to wish you luck on your contest, but I don’t think I will.”</p><p>Ash laughed at her, and Pikachu did too. “Just for that, I’ll make sure to win!”</p><p>Then Misty’s bus back to the gym came, and they set off for the next step on their journey.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>misty: hey kiawe you can probably learn a trick or two for fighting me if you watch ash's contest battles<br/>kiawe: ok<br/>misty, two days later: ok what did you learn<br/>kiawe: ..............................apply even more fire?</p><p>also fun fact rio’s feebas’s nickname is phillip. thats all thanks</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Rosemary Town</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Several days after they left Cerulean City, Kiawe and Marowak were gathering firewood. Litten was trotting along at Kiawe’s heels with a twig in its mouth, and Kiawe kept glancing behind himself to make sure nothing had eaten it, or it hadn’t gotten lost, or…</p><p>Marowak smacked him in the leg with its bundle of sticks, and he realized he’d been looking behind himself so much he almost ran into a tree. </p><p>“Maro,” said Marowak, tucking its sticks under its arm to be able to cross its arms properly. “Maro marowak!”</p><p>“Thank you, Marowak,” said Kiawe.</p><p>“Maro marowak maro!” said Marowak, gesturing with its chin at Litten. “Maro!”</p><p>Litten skittered behind Kiawe’s leg. “Lit…”</p><p>Marowak looked up at Kiawe, accusing. “Maro marowak!”</p><p>“Litten!” said Litten. It sounded hurt. “Lit?”</p><p>“Litten, are you alright?” said Kiawe, crouching down. </p><p>“Maro marowak!” shouted Marowak, angry now. “Marowak!”</p><p>It threw down its bundle of sticks and stomped off into the woods. </p><p>Kiawe stared after it. </p><p>Litten rubbed up against his hand, calling his attention back down to it. “Litten?” it said, tentative, in its perfect little voice. “Litten lit?”</p><p>Kiawe didn’t answer, because he was still trying to figure out what had just happened.</p><p>Marowak had gotten mad, and hurt Litten, and ran off. That should put Marowak at fault, but that didn’t sound right at all. That didn’t sound at all like what had happened, because Marowak never ran off when it picked a fight. It saw all its fights through to the end, with all the fire of Wela Volcano. Instead, it ran off when it was frustrated, or when it wanted to be followed.</p><p>Had Kiawe almost walking into a tree made it frustrated? That wasn’t right. Marowak would have just laughed at him, usually. But Marowak had been grumpier lately. Kiawe had thought it was just from being in Kanto, because that would make anyone grumpy. But…</p><p>“Litten?” said Litten, climbing up onto his leg and batting at his face. Its voice was still tentative, questioning, hurt. He had to make sure it was alright. That was more important than what was up with Marowak.</p><p>“Don’t worry, Litten,” he said, making sure he spoke as softly as possible. “I’m sure Marowak didn’t mean it.”</p><p>“Litten…” said Litten. It shook its head out. “Litten lit!”</p><p>“That’s the spirit!” said Kiawe. He had to find Marowak. But leaving Litten on its own… no way. He couldn’t, not in a million years. He picked Litten up in his arms and stood up. “Let’s take all this wood back to Ash together, okay?”</p><p>“Lit!” agreed Litten, and jumped out of his arms. He bit his lip, but it landed safely. “Lit litten?”</p><p>“I’ll go find Marowak afterward, don’t worry.”</p><p>They gathered up all the firewood, Kiawe with his own bundle and Marowak’s dropped sticks and Litten with its one twig, and walked back to camp. Kiawe dropped the wood near the firepit Ash had dug in the meantime, and left Litten with Incineroar, and tried to think.</p><p>There was something he was missing. There was something wrong, and he was missing it, because Marowak never acted like this without a reason, and almost never acted like this at all. Especially not since they’d first managed a z-move together. </p><p>Which had taken awhile, and lots of effort, and they’d had to learn to work together for real. It had been like that with Turtonator, too, but Marowak hadn’t been there for Kiawe and Turtonator learning together. And it <em>hadn’t</em> been like that with Numel, because they’d shared a purpose from first meeting and understood each other instantly and gotten to battle together in the Rota tournament less than a week later. So maybe Marowak was frustrated about that? </p><p>But they’d been in Rota almost a month ago now, so he thought Marowak would have said something before, and anyway, <em>Litten</em> had had nothing to do with the Rota tournament.</p><p>He stepped around a thorny bush, and found the tree he’d nearly walked into, and tried to figure out which direction Marowak would have run off to. Further into the forest, definitely. </p><p>Why had Litten been so hurt by whatever Marowak said? Kiawe wished he was as good at understanding pokemon as Ash. Kiawe could figure out their tone of voice, anyone could, but understanding what pokemon were actually saying was so much harder than Ash made it look.</p><p>Glance around trees, look under bushes, trip over vines, <em>where</em> could Marowak have gone? The sun was starting to set, and the tree-shadows were growing long and enveloping, and Kiawe didn’t want to be in the woods alone at night. He should have brought Turtonator, at least.</p><p>He remembered when he’d first met Marowak, when it stole the Wela Crown and led him on a chase across the slopes of Wela Volcano. It had just wanted to be stronger, then. It had just wanted to be stronger, and it had chosen him to be its trainer because it recognized Turtonator’s strength. And he’d never wondered why aside from that, because everyone in Alola knew that the bond between trainer and pokemon made both trainer and pokemon stronger than they could ever be alone. </p><p>He put a hand on a tree. He should go back, ask everyone else to help search. Ash always had Rowlet look from the air, that would probably be a good idea.</p><p>But for some reason, that didn’t feel right. </p><p>Marowak only ran off when it wanted someone to follow.</p><p>The tree’s bark crumbled off under his fingers. It was <em>cold</em> out.</p><p>He’d met Marowak over wanting to be stronger, and they <em>had</em> gotten stronger together until they could use a z-move, until they were a team. And ever since then, they’d only ever had problems when Marowak decided to play pranks or when… Marowak… got jealous.</p><p>Marowak <em>hadn’t</em> been grumpy since they’d gotten to Kanto. <em>Kiawe</em> had been grumpy since they got to Kanto, so he hadn’t really noticed, but Marowak had only turned grumpy on the way back to Viridian City.</p><p>When Litten had hatched.</p><p>Kiawe dug his nails into the tree.</p><p>“Marowak!” he shouted. He hadn’t been shouting before. He’d been too busy thinking. “Marowak, where are you?”</p><p>Kiawe remembered when Ash had first joined their class. Sophocles had been their newest, before, because Professor Kukui’s class was all the school’s misfits, and battlers, and geniuses, and kids with family obligations that might take them out of school unannounced. So Sophocles was their newest, and their youngest, and once the excitement of having a new classmate had worn off, he’d been the one who ran off crying when Ash had had the whole class and even Professor Kukui listening to a story about how he’d first met his pikachu.</p><p>Mallow, who tried to help everyone, and Lillie, who understood Sophocles best because of how smart they both were, had been the ones to go after him. But Kiawe had found out later that Sophocles been worried about being replaced, because Ash also had an electric-type partner and could have the whole class’s attention in <em>seconds</em>, if he wanted it, and Kiawe and Lana battled with him, and he knew all sorts of facts for Lillie to find out about, and he liked Mallow’s food as much Sophocles did, and he was living at Professor Kukui’s <em>house</em>. </p><p>Kiawe hadn’t been too sure of Ash back then, foreigner that he was, so he’d thought Sophocles’s worry was stupid. He <em>was</em> sure of Ash, now, and he <em>still</em> thought it was stupid. But it might explain why…</p><p>“Marowak!” he shouted, again, desperate. The sun was getting lower. “Marowak! Please!”</p><p>And— there was Marowak, stepping out of the shadows.</p><p>“Maro,” it said sullenly, holding its bone club in both hands.</p><p>Kiawe sat down. It seemed like the thing to do. “Marowak,” he started. He had to explain to it. He wasn’t good at that. He had to think of the right words.</p><p>“Wak,” said Marowak. It stayed standing, and leaned on its club. Kiawe stared at it.</p><p>He took a deep breath. “Marowak,” he said, again. “The day we met changed both our lives.” He fiddled with his necklace. “You know that, right? That I’ll never forget that day?”</p><p>Marowak nodded, reluctantly. “Wak.”</p><p>“Then you have to know that I’ll never replace you, either.” Kiawe paused again, and watched Marowak, who was watching him back. “Even though Litten and Numel are also my pokemon, that doesn’t mean you’re not. Our hearts burn together, lighting up the sky!” He threw an arm in the air. “And nothing can put out the fire of our bond.”</p><p>“Maro…”</p><p>Kiawe clenched his hands into fists. Marowak watched him. “And I am very sorry I ever made you feel like I was replacing you, Marowak. Tell you what,” he added, as Marowak’s grip on its club wobbled, “next gym battle. You’ll be my lead pokemon!”</p><p>He liked to lead with Turtonator. It made him feel better, here so far from home, to have a pokemon he could trust to stand up to anything that came its way out in front, and then once he knew what the opposition looked like he would use the rest of his team. But he needed to make Marowak feel better, and Marowak was strong enough to brave the unexpected, so that bit of strategy didn’t matter at all.</p><p>Marowak’s eyes filled with tears. It dropped its club and ran at Kiawe so that he had to grab it in his arms, in a hug. </p><p>He was crying too, he realized, at Marowak’s understanding, at how much he loved it, and they sat there as the shadows grew longer and the sunlight turned cantaloupe. Holding each other, in this foreign region where nothing was right but at least they had each other.</p><p> </p><p>Some time later, as the sun was setting for real and Kiawe and Marowak were walking, side-by-side, back into the campsite, the air filled with a hundred or more butterfree, brightly colored against the blue-and-orange sky.</p><p>Ash, who was chopping berries with Pikachu, glanced up sharply. He squinted, then dropped his knife.</p><p>“Pikapi…”</p><p>And then a butterfree wearing a tattered yellow scarf around its neck landed in front of him. </p><p>“Butterfree…” said Ash, voice low and awed, and Kiawe thought his eyes were glimmering. </p><p>An astonishingly pink butterfree landed next to the one with the scarf, and then around them four more butterfree touched down. One of them was a little smaller than the rest. </p><p>“Butterfree!” repeated Ash, shouting now, and he ran forwards, grabbing the scarfed one in his arms. “It’s you! It’s really you!”</p><p>“Pi pikachu,” said Pikachu, dashing onto Ash’s shoulder so it could touch the butterfree’s head with its cheek. “Chu pi, pipikachu!”</p><p>“Butterfree,” said Butterfree. Its voice was light, lilting. It reached out its long curled tongue and licked Ash on the cheek. “Butter butter butterfree!”</p><p>Ash glanced around, still holding Butterfree, and seemed to remember that there were other people and pokemon in the clearing.</p><p>“This,” he said, and held Butterfree up in the air, “is my old friend Butterfree, the very first pokemon I ever caught. And this is its mate, and these are — are they your kids?” Butterfree nodded, and Ash grinned. He knew so many people. He had so many friends. Kiawe was always a little bit in awe, and Marowak was gripping its bone next to him. “And these are Butterfree’s kids! How awesome! And, Butterfree, this is everyone, we gotta catch up on everything, I haven’t seen you in forever and ever and ever, and—” He paused. The swarm of butterfree had disappeared back into the sky already, leaving these six behind. “You <em>can</em> stay long enough for that, right? You don’t have to leave right away, right?”</p><p>“Free,” said Butterfree, and licked his face again. </p><p>“Awesome! Then you gotta have dinner with us! And tell me about all the adventures you’ve been on, and—” </p><p>“Butterfree!”</p><p> </p><p>Butterfree and its mate and its kids stuck with them overnight, and then when they woke up in the morning, the wind was blowing hard and fast and strong in totally the wrong direction for them to keep going with their migration.</p><p>So Butterfree asked to travel with them until the wind was right, and Ash, trying not to cry, said yes, and they set off towards Rosemary Town. </p><p>It was the middle of the day now, and they were just sitting down for lunch — sandwiches, the kind Clemont sometimes made — when a dustox flew into the clearing.</p><p>“Wait,” said Ash, looking up at it. “Wait, I know that dustox. Isn’t that Team Rocket’s dustox?”</p><p>“Prepare for—” said a voice from the bushes. “Hey, wait, Twerp! Is that your butterfree?”</p><p>Ash stood up. “Team Rocket!” </p><p>“Butter-butterfree?”</p><p>Ash laughed. “Yeah, they still follow me around!”</p><p>“It’s us! The fabulous three!” said Meowth.</p><p>“Fabulous four, you mean!” said Jessie, emerging from the bushes with a big flourishing gesture towards Dustox. “I’ve been reunited with my beautiful, show-stopping Dustox for the barest of moments and yet, somehow, my life has never been more filled with light!”</p><p>“Hey, that’s great!” said Ash. </p><p>“Hey, those were our sandwiches!” said Kiawe. Ash spun around just in time to see Marowak hit James over the head with its club. </p><p>“Well, we were hungry!” said Meowth, shoving the last sandwich in his mouth. “That’s charity!”</p><p>“You mean you didn’t leave any for <em>me</em>?” said Jessie. “Some friends you are.”</p><p>“Hey, you weren’t paying attention,” objected James. “You had your chance.”</p><p>“Ignoring us for Dustox comes at your expense!” said Meowth. </p><p>“Yeah, well, you shouldn't have been eating our lunch in the first place!” said Ash. “Pikachu, use—”</p><p>“Butterfree,” said Butterfree. </p><p>“Butterfree,” said Butterfree’s mate.</p><p>They both used Hurricane. Their children contributed with Gust.</p><p>Team Rocket went flying. </p><p>“We’re blasting off again!” said Meowth.</p><p>“I’m blasting off with Dustox!” said Jessie.</p><p>“It’s a blast from the past!” said James.</p><p>“Well, I guess we need to start from scratch for lunch,” said Ash.</p><p>Rowlet found a sitrus berry tree after a bit of looking, so thanks to Iris’s recipes they had a nice lunch after all, and then Ash turned around to walk backwards so he could talk with Butterfree.</p><p>“Butterfree,” he said, “I was thinking. We’re headed to my next contest, right?”</p><p>“Free,” said Butterfree, who’d had contests explained to it the night before because Misty had had the group avoiding them for the whole time Butterfree had traveled with Ash.</p><p>“We don’t have time to put an appeal together, but how would you like to battle in it with me?” asked Ash, looking at it, nearly jittering with excitement. “For old times’ sake!”</p><p>“Butterfree!”</p><p>Then Ash walked backwards into a tree.</p><p> </p><p>Rosemary Town was bustling. Ash learned from Nurse Joy that they had one contest a year, so everyone was super super excited and pretty much the whole town came out to watch it.</p><p>Their contest hall was on the smaller side, and it was right next to the pokemon center, which was super convenient. They had registration open from the afternoon before the contest was scheduled, so Ash went over and registered himself while Nurse Joy took care of his pokemon and also the whole family of butterfree. Even though they were wild! That was really nice of Nurse Joy. </p><p>Just as he was headed back to the pokemon center, the door banged open and a lady in a sequined scarlet dress, a masquerade mask shaped like a dustox, and a tophat perched precariously on her head marched right in. Her hair was bright pink, and she wore it in a long braid. Ash wasn’t sure why he thought that was notable. </p><p>“Make way!” she announced, “for I, me, Jessamara, Queen of Contests, Empress of Enchantment, who will be winning the Rosemary Town contest and taking home that ribbon tomorrow no question!”</p><p>“Oh,” said Ash, recognizing her voice. “You’re that coordinator who keeps being late and shouting about it!”</p><p>“Why you!” she said, turning on her heel to glare at him like she was an arbok. “You have no idea what you’re talking about, twe— peasant! I am far too glorious to associate with the likes of you, and so I will simply ignore you as your status deserves. After all, the one who wins the contest tomorrow will be me!”</p><p>Ash shrugged. She seemed like an exciting opponent! “We’ll see about that,” he said.</p><p>She sniffed. “We’ll see the look on your face when I snatch victory right out of you grubby little hands, you mean!”</p><p>“Good luck to you too,” said Ash, and left for the pokemon center so she could finish registering.</p><p>Butterfree was waiting for him there, and Kiawe was watching Litten run around the lobby area with a small smile on his face, and Pikachu was talking with one of Butterfree’s kids about something apparently very important.</p><p>“Your pokemon are all in excellent health,” Nurse Joy told him when he walked up to her to take back their pokeballs and thank her for taking care of them. “Good luck in the contest tomorrow! The whole town will have its eyes on you, so be sure to show us something exciting!”</p><p>“You can count on it!” said Ash. He released his team. “Butterfree, everyone, you ready? Let’s go train a little more before dinner!”</p><p>“We’re coming too!” said Kiawe.</p><p>Ash smiled. He sometimes wondered if his life was too amazing to be true, if he had too many friends and too much good luck. And this week was one of those times. </p><p>He got to see Butterfree again, and travel with it, and he got to go around Kanto with Kiawe and <em>his</em> team and watch him grow and learn as a trainer, and he got to have the most <em>amazing</em> pokemon on his team, who were willing to try out doing contests and learn a whole new way of battling with him, and he was even a Champion now! </p><p>He was <em>so happy</em>. He hoped he could stay this happy for ever and ever and ever.</p><p> </p><p>James and Meowth navigated through the contest crowd, trying to find good seats. </p><p>Such were the perils of general admission, and of not being able to fly: Dustox’s mate and their kids were watching from the rafters with Gourgeist, Inkay, and the Twerp’s butterfree’s mate and kids. </p><p>It really was a world-class tragedy that if they made themselves late trying to snatch Pikachu for the boss, they couldn’t be guaranteed front-row seats to watch Jessie cream the competition.</p><p>But at least she could comp them in for free as a contestant, and at least she’d managed to make it to <em>registration</em> in time, finally. James wasn’t sure he could deal with another Jessie-style tantrum about missing a chance to show up the twerp and show the Kanto crowd what she could do. He’d been pretty sure she would end up setting something on fire if she missed another one.</p><p>Meowth pointed out some decent seats, and they slipped towards them, and then, finally sitting, looked for the fire twerp. Who was taking up three seats because of half of his and the Twerp’s teams needing to watch the contest, for some reason. Lycanroc had even managed to charm the lady sitting next to it into giving it neck scratches. Really! The contest hall was nearly full! You’d think they’d have the decency to not leave anyone standing at the back, but apparently not!</p><p>He complained about that a bit with Meowth, until Lilian stepped out on stage and the crowd hushed. </p><p>“Welcome, one and all, to the Rosemary Town Contest!” The crowd applauded. This was their big yearly event, right. Nothing else happened here except maybe a harvest festival at some point. What a boring little town. “On this glorious sunny day, we have twenty-three talented coordinators competing in the appeals round for the four spots in our exciting battle round. We’re sure to see a dazzling show, so let me introduce our judges!”</p><p>She ran through Raoul Contesta, Mr Sukizo, who said “How remarkable!”, and the local Nurse Joy, who waved and smiled. James zoned out for it. Jessie’s performance was the <em>real</em> event here. And Jessie beating up the Twerp was the <em>other</em> real event.</p><p>Some of the local kids had their appeals first, most of them pretty underwhelming. Jessie had pounded contest standards into his head, like it or not, and most of those kids were pretty obviously competing in their first ever contest. A few of them had promise, but honestly, having a growlithe jump through a hoop a few times? <em>James</em> could do better.</p><p>Then it was the Twerp’s turn. He entered with Pikachu on his head, apparently asleep, and James’s hands twitched towards his pockets. But Jessie would straight up murder him if he interrupted the contest now that it was underway, so they’d have to snag Pikachu tomorrow.</p><p>The Twerp walked to center stage and then spun around once, sharply, at which point Pikachu lifted its head and opened its eyes. </p><p>“Pikachu, use Thunderbolt,” he said. His voice was unusually calm.</p><p>Pikachu looked up and used Thunderbolt straight up and down, so that both it and the twerp were lit in a column of yellow light. Ha, James could totally pull that appeal off. The <em>Twerp</em> thought he was immune to the electric type? Team Rocket were so much more immune than he was.</p><p>“What an astonishing turn of events!” commentated Lilian. “Ash’s pikachu has engulfed both him and itself in a high-powered electric attack! What will they do next? And will Ash still be standing at the end of this appeal?”</p><p>The Thunderbolt started to fade. </p><p>“Electroweb,” said the Twerp from between clenched teeth.</p><p>Pikachu’s glowing ball of electricity shone from even within the column of Thunderbolt, and then as the Thunderbolt flickered out Pikachu launched the Electroweb ball up, and it unfolded into something not a web at all. </p><p>“Whoa,” said Meowth, “it’s Zapdos!”</p><p>Meowth, James realized, was right. Pikachu had managed to turn its Electroweb into a filigree sculpture of a zapdos dipping in a leftward dive, the lower wing just barely skimming past the top of Pikachu’s head and giving it an anchor point to hold the whole thing steady. </p><p>And Pikachu did hold it, for a good ten seconds, long enough for the audience to properly admire it. Then as everyone — bar James and Meowth of course, even though he sort of wanted to — began their applause, the sculpture disintegrated into yellow sparkles and the Twerp and Pikachu bowed. Huh. When had the Twerp learned how having a stage presence worked?</p><p>“Well, wasn’t that exciting!” said Lilian, as they left the stage, the Twerp wobbling a little. “The unshakable bond between trainer and pokemon, everyone! And next up we have another visitor to this fine town, the beautiful and athletic Jessamara!”</p><p>“Go Jess!” shouted James.</p><p>Meowth had pulled out pompoms from somewhere. “Knock ‘em dead!”</p><p>Jessie dashed onto the stage, her dress catching the light, Dustox’s wings spread wide behind her. Pity Dustox didn’t have a pokeball anymore, because they could have done a pretty incredible entrance with seals, but the drama inherent here made up for it.</p><p>“Dustox!” she said, sliding to a stop and spreading her arms out wide, “use Whirlwind!”</p><p>Dustox flew in a circle up and around her, scales sparkling under the light, whirling the air into motion until it lifted Jessie up into the air, spinning, laughing. </p><p>“Now, add that Psybeam!” said Jessie, still spinning ten feet up in the air. </p><p>Dustox obliged, and thin tendrils of multi-colored iridescent Psybeam worked their way into the Whirlwind, making a stunning tornado of color with Jessie right in the middle of it and Dustox presiding above it. That lasted a few more seconds, until the Whirlwind finished lifting Jessie all the way and she was up in the air next to Dustox, smiling like she’d never known bliss before now. </p><p>“And now,” announced Jessie, “let us down gently, dear Dustox, so that we can drink in the audience’s applause!”</p><p>Dustox swirled the Psybeam up to catch Jessie in a cloak of colors and spun her gently to the ground as the Whirlwind faded out.</p><p>Jessie curtsied.</p><p>“And that was a stunning rainbow-colored appeal from Jessamara!” announced Lilian. “What a fabulous sight!” </p><p>The crowd applauded, James and Meowth the loudest of them.</p><p>That had gone well. That had gone <em>really</em> well. If James was crying, it was because he was really proud of Jessie and so glad to see her having fun on a stage again. And also because this meant she <em>wouldn’t</em> be making them crash the Twerp’s mediocre school plays with her to cope with the lack of spotlight. That had been the <em>worst</em>.</p><p>Jessie stood there milking the applause until Lilian shooed her off stage (rude), and announced the next appeal, which was a kid named Martin with a pineco who did a fairly decent appeal involving Spikes and Gyro Ball. </p><p>There were five more after that, and then it was <em>finally</em> intermission. </p><p>Unfortunately James and Meowth couldn’t get up to invade the dressing room and congratulate Jessie because someone would probably end up stealing their seats, so they sat and discussed the details of the latest mech they were building instead. This one would capture Pikachu for sure!</p><p>Fifteen minutes later, Lilian slid back on stage to announce the results. Jessie’d made it through, <em>obviously</em>, and the Twerp did too, which was fair enough because his appeal had been surprisingly decent and anyway this way Jessie’d be able to beat him properly, along with that kid Martin who’d used a pineco and another coordinator with a bit of experience, who’d used a chansey. </p><p>The Twerp was battling Martin first, and he walked out on stage with that butterfree of his tagging along behind him. Pikachu was still on his shoulder, apparently just for variety.</p><p>“Bets on the Twerp,” said Meowth. </p><p>“Oh, totally,” said James. “Nobody but our Jessie will bring him down!”</p><p>“Though it’s a bit odd he’s using Butterfree,” added Meowth. “Only three days to teach it contest battling, when he hasn’t seen it in years?”</p><p>“Not odd. Just Twerpish.”</p><p>“You’re right, you’re right.”</p><p>“Butterfree, let’s give them a show!” said the Twerp, gesturing for Butterfree to take to the stage.</p><p>“Typhlosion, dazzle them!” said Martin, tossing a pokeball. It had a flame seal attached, which caused Butterfree to fly up out of the way a little to stop its wings getting singed and lose the Twerp a few points. Typhlosion growled a greeting. “Great start!”</p><p>“Butterfree, don’t be intimidated!”</p><p>The Twerp had Butterfree throw up a Safeguard, mostly for show, and then shower glittering Stun Spore down from above. After that, he had it dodging mostly, making beautiful loops and dives occasionally complemented by another shower of Stun or Sleep Spore, which mostly got burned up by the typhlosion’s wild fire attacks but still seemed to consistently win it points for being sparkly. Contests.</p><p>The typhlosion spent the fight getting more and more frustrated, until Martin demanded the Twerp fight it fair and square. </p><p>At which point the Twerp called for a Tackle and Butterfree dove down and impacted squarely on Typhlosion’s chest, draining the last of its points with precision, speed, and power, and leaving the Twerp and Butterfree the winner. </p><p>Next up was Jessie, against chansey girl, who was apparently named Joy — “no relation to Nurse Joy, promise!” — and who pulled out a togekiss for the battle round. </p><p>Jessie sent out Dustox again, intent on using her reunion time to the fullest, and lead off with a shimmering Psybeam. Togekiss splashed it around itself with Protect, which knocked Jessie’s points down a little, but Jessie countered with a perfect Poison Sting that nearly knocked Togekiss out of the sky, and the two of them danced and looped around each other for awhile, stalemated, until Dustox swooped in with a Tackle and a close-range Poison Sting that left Togekiss slamming into the ground. </p><p>Lilian announced it unable to battle, which meant Jessie was fighting the Twerp in the finals. All was as it should be.</p><p>“Yeah!” cheered James.</p><p>“Go Jessamara!” cheered Meowth. </p><p>A few minutes later, the Twerp and Jessie stepped back out on stage. Jessie flicked her braid behind her head, and the Twerp flipped his hat around. </p><p>“Butterfree, let’s give them a show!”</p><p>“Dustox, show them who’s best!”</p><p>The two bug-types flew out to the center of the battlefield, sizing each other up. </p><p>“And let the final round of the Rosemary Town Contest… <em>begin!</em> Let’s! Get! Busy!”</p><p>“Dustox, start out with Poison Sting!”</p><p>“Butterfree, Safeguard!”</p><p>The brilliant purple Poison Sting needles pieced right through the Safeguard, but Butterfree was protected from their actual poison despite being flung back a little. The judges called it even. </p><p>“Stun Spore, Butterfree!”</p><p>“Blow the Stun Spore away with Whirlwind!”</p><p>The Stun Spore glittered in the air, ineffective. The Twerp’s points dipped. </p><p>“Now, Psybeam!”</p><p>“Tackle, though the middle!”</p><p>Butterfree dipped in a Tackle, trying to angle through the center of Dustox’s circular Psybeam, but it apparently didn’t count on the fact that Dustox’s power was immeasurable! And hit the ceiling hard. </p><p>“Butterfree, are you alright?” </p><p>“Free,” said Butterfree, from the ground. “Free!” </p><p>It got up and looped towards Dustox again for another Tackle, which Dustox met head-on with its own Tackle, knocking them both back. </p><p>They went at it like that for another few minutes, matching Tackles, countering each other’s status moves with Safeguard and Whirlwind, Butterfree looping around Dustox’s Psybeam, Lilian’s commentary reaching a fever-pitch of excitement at their matched performance. </p><p>Dustox shot off another Poison Sting, white this time, and Butterfree, practiced now, dodged between the darts, angling up. But Jessie called a Whirlwind, which caught the darts as they fell towards the ground and shot them back up, skimming through Butterfree’s Safeguard and grazing it after all when the Twerp didn’t call a dodge in time. So Butterfree covered the whole stage in shining Stun Spore, and—</p><p>The timer went off. Jessie had more points left.</p><p>“Aw, man,” said the Twerp. “I was having fun!”</p><p>“Mwahahaha!” said Jessie, as Dustox came to hover behind her. “I, the Queen of Contests, the Empress of Enchantment, I win! As the stars foretold!” Then she paused. Blinked. Opened her mouth, and closed it again. “Articuno,” she mouthed. James could only read her lips through long experience. “Arceus above. Glorious Tapu. Articuno’s wings. I beat the Twerp. Tapu Fini.”</p><p>The Twerp walked up to her, holding his hand out to shake, face unreadable, but she didn’t seem to notice him. </p><p>He waited there for a good half a minute, waving a hand in front of her face, but she just stood there, staring at nothing, until even James couldn’t blame him for finally just saying, “Um, thanks for the battle, Jessamara, I had a great time!” and walking off stage.</p><p>Lilian and Raoul Contesta presented Jessie and Dustox with the Rosemary Town ribbon, and James and Meowth led the crowd in a standing ovation, which finally woke her up out of her daze long enough to soak in the applause.</p><p>This was a historic day! Jessie had her first Kanto ribbon, and she’d beat the Twerp in an official battle, and, most importantly, she <em>wasn’t</em> going to be irritated and snappy tonight! </p><p>“You know, Meowth,” said James, “I’m really coming to like this little town.”</p><p>“Yeah,” said Meowth. “I can see why.”</p><p> </p><p>The Twerp was moping. It was the middle of the night, and he was sitting on the pokemon center’s roof staring at the contest hall, without his pokemon. Jessie had spotted him up there while Team Rocket was scoping out the pokemon center for a celebratory scheme to steal all its pokeballs, and had wandered up to the roof on the pretense of seeing if the building was designed with a skylight.</p><p>She was still looking for the skylight, but if her search brought her over to the Twerp, well, too bad. She was riding high on her victory today. She could totally get away with needling him for a bit. It wouldn’t ruin their scheme. Especially if she did it as Jessamara!</p><p>She swapped out her clothes and threw her hair into a braid and then wandered over, doing her best “I’m totally supposed to be here on this pokemon center roof in the middle of the night” impression.</p><p>“Hey,” said the Twerp. “What are you doing on the pokemon center roof in the middle of the night?”</p><p>Jessie sniffed. “None of your business,” she said. “What are <em>you</em> doing?”</p><p>“Thinking,” said the Twerp.</p><p>“You think?” said Jessie. She sat down next to him.</p><p>“Hey!” He glanced over at her. “Oh, it’s you. Hi.” He pointed. “I’m also watching them.”</p><p>Jessie squinted, and eventually spotted a young butterfree and one of Dustox’s kids flying circles around each other in the air.</p><p>“That’s one of Butterfree’s kids,” said the Twerp. “They must have been inspired by our battle today!”</p><p>The butterfree shot off a Gust, and the dustox countered with Silver Wind, lighting up the night. </p><p>“Huh,” said Jessie. She watched them for a little longer. He was right. “There is romance in the air! A tragic forbidden love between dustox and butterfree, fated to break the heart of all who witness it! Weep for them!”</p><p>“Why’s it forbidden?” said Ash. “They’re both bug types, aren’t they?”</p><p>Jessie sniffed. “You wouldn’t understand.”</p><p>“I guess not,” said the Twerp. He went back to watching them loop and swirl. The night was clear, so when the dustox used Moonlight, it dazzled.</p><p>“That was a good battle today,” said the Twerp, finally. “Can’t say I’m not upset about losing, but it was a totally awesome contest battle! I feel like I learned a lot.”</p><p>Pff. That was flattery. The Twerp, admit he’d learned anything from her? Yeah, right. He was a weird kid, but not <em>that</em> weird.</p><p>But he kept talking. “I wasn’t sure if you heard me when I said thank you for the battle, so I just wanted to say it again! Thanks for the awesome contest battle, Jess— Jessamara!”</p><p>Jessie lifted up her chin. Weird or not, this was what she deserved! “You’re welcome, Twe— kid. Next time you want to be beaten so soundly your head rings, feel free to let me know.”</p><p>“Nah,” he said, with that irritating Twerpish smile. “Next time we fight I’ll beat you for sure!”</p><p>“In your dreams, kid!” </p><p>The Twerp laughed. “I’m excited!”</p><p>Ugh. He was intolerable. Jessie didn’t know why she’d thought talking to him would be a good idea. </p><p>The dustox and the butterfree looped around each other, and then the butterfree used Gust to fluff a Sleep Powder into a vague heart shape and the dustox made a delighted trill and swooped over to it and they spun around and around into the night sky together.</p><p>“They seem pretty happy together,” said the Twerp.</p><p>“Ah,” said Jessie, tears in her eyes, “true love! Not even fate can stand in its way! Not destiny, not the world! I will do anything to ensure the happiness of these two pokemon! Perhaps some day, I too will be that happy and that in love!”</p><p>“I dunno what any of that means,” admitted the Twerp. “But I’m glad you think they’re having a good time too! Maybe they’ll go off on a journey together!”</p><p>“A journey of love…” said Jessie.</p><p>She sat there for a little while longer, watching them, and then something crashed in the distance and she stood up. James and Meowth must be in trouble! Of course, they were helpless without her! “We will meet again!” she said, to the Twerp. “Farewell!”</p><p>“Um, bye,” said the Twerp, craning his head back to watch her go. “Any idea what that noise was? Someone must be in trouble!” </p><p>But she was gone. </p><p> </p><p>The wind picked up during the night. Butterfree woke Ash up in the morning, urgently, and then led him and Pikachu and Lycanroc outside with the rest of its family and told them about how it had to leave, now that the wind was right again. </p><p>And then a giant snowglobe thing scooped all the butterfree and also Lycanroc up and lifted them in the air. </p><p>“What’s going on?” shouted Ash. </p><p>Team Rocket’s balloon floated down out of the sky, surrounded by a small swarm of dustox and beautifly.</p><p>“What a question! Twerpish indeed!”</p><p>“We’ll answer these questions when we feel the—”</p><p>“That’s also the <em>wrong</em> motto!” shouted Meowth, shaking them both by the shoulder. “Get it <em>right</em>!”</p><p>“Well aren’t you grumpy,” grumbled James.</p><p>“Pikachu!” called Ash. “Use Iron Tail!”</p><p>“Hey, don’t interrupt, Twerp! We’re arguing!” said Meowth. </p><p>“Dustox,” said Jessie, throwing out an arm, “as a parting gift before you leave with the wind, knock Pikachu down with Tackle!”</p><p>Dustox zoomed down, catching Pikachu mid-leap. That was when Kiawe and the rest of the pokemon came running out of the pokemon center shouting about “what’s going on?”</p><p>“Pikachu, you alright?” asked Ash. Pikachu nodded. Ash picked Rowlet up out of its favorite Melmetal perch and shook it until it woke up and trilled sleepily. </p><p>“Rowlet, can you rescue Lycanroc and Butterfree with Razor Leaf?”</p><p>“Rrrow!” said Rowlet, so Ash threw it in the direction of the rope holding up the snowglobe thing for a head start. </p><p>“Dustox, Poison Sting!”</p><p>In the middle of Dustox and Rowlet exchanging Razor Leaf leaves and Poison Sting darts, the snowglobe detached and fell apparently all on its own.</p><p>Jessie gasped. That dustox Ash had been watching dance with Butterfree’s kid last night was hovering by the split rope, wings still shining slightly from a Silver Wind.</p><p>The snowglobe hit the ground and shattered, and Lycanroc shook off shards of glass while the butterfree all spread their wings and took flight.</p><p>“Betrayal!” gasped James. </p><p>“Love…” sighed Jessie.</p><p>“Whatever it is, we’re in trouble!” said Meowth. </p><p>The butterfree had all flown up to where the balloon was, except the one who was apparently in love with the dustox or something. Those two were off to the side where they could stare at each other. </p><p>“Yikes!” said Jessie. She put her hands over her heart. “Dustox, farewell! Do not come with me on this painful flight! Someday we shall meet again!”</p><p>The butterfree used Gust and Whirlwind. </p><p>Pikachu used Thunderbolt. </p><p>The dustox, listening to Jessie, all ducked out of the way.</p><p>“Thanks for the send-off!” shouted Ash.</p><p>“You’re welcome, Twerp!” shouted Jessie.</p><p>“We’re blasting off agaiIIIIIIIN!” shouted Team Rocket.</p><p>Ash watched them disappear into the sky, and then took a deep breath and looked at Butterfree.</p><p>Butterfree flew down, colored brightly against the morning sky, flapping its wings slow and steady, and looked back at him. </p><p>“So,” said Ash, “you’re leaving.”</p><p>“Butterfree,” agreed Butterfree. </p><p>Ash gestured at the cloud of butterfree and dustox, mingling now at the invitation of the two who were in love or something. “Are you all going together?”</p><p>Butterfree nodded. Kiawe put a hand on Ash’s shoulder. </p><p>“That’s good,” said Ash. His vision blurred. “I’m really, really glad for you.”</p><p>“Free…” said Butterfree, and licked his face, so he grabbed it in a hug and held on and cried. </p><p>“I’ll miss you,” he managed, finally. He fiddled with Butterfree’s scarf, which it still had. “I hope you see lots and lots of amazing places and make lots and lots of amazing friends and visit Alola and.” He took a shaky breath. Butterfree licked his face again. “And we’ll definitely, definitely, <em>definitely</em> see each other again!”</p><p>“Pi, pikachu, chupi!” added Pikachu, and Butterfree licked it too. “Chupi, pikachu.”</p><p>“Butterfree,” trilled Butterfree one last time. </p><p>And then it flew back up in the air, and the whole cloud of them turned into dots, and they disappeared on the strong westerly wind.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>MOTH! AND! BUTTERFLY! TIME!!!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Saffron City</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Saffron City was only three days’ walk away from Rosemary Town, and they passed those days talking and training. Litten had started to like walking around on its own instead of being carried, so Kiawe reluctantly let it on the ground to dart after shadows and attack leaves under his gaze as they walked. </p><p>Even more reluctantly, he started staging practice battles between it and Pikachu or Incineroar at their gentlest. It wanted to fight, that much was clear. And as much as Kiawe wanted to make sure it never, ever got hurt, he couldn’t deny it that satisfaction any longer. So, very carefully, they worked on its Scratch and then — during an encounter with Team Rocket — it learned Ember to rescue Pikachu and Incineroar and Kiawe was never more proud in his life.</p><p>Litten was so perfect. Litten was <em>so</em> perfect.</p><p>And when he wasn’t working with Litten, he was training for his rematch with Audrey with Numel and Marowak and Turtonator, and Ash was working extra hard on his contest combinations with his team. Kiawe had been a little worried about him the night after the Rosemary Town contest, when he’d disappeared in the middle of the night, but he’d come back in a few hours later smiling like he did sometimes. </p><p>Apparently losing twice in a row just made him even more psyched about winning!</p><p> </p><p>Saffron City was as ugly as Viridian City, which was as ugly as Pewter City. Cerulean City had been a little nicer, with all its fountains and trees scattered around, but kantonian cities were so ugly, even if the countryside was nice enough sometimes. How did people <em>live</em> here? </p><p>Ash led him to the pokemon center, where they did their usual calls and Kiawe got to see Mimo over the screen while their pokemon were checked over by Nurse Joy, and then they raced to the gym again. Which Ash won again, because he knew where it was (sort of, they had to keep asking people for directions, but he at least knew what the building looked like). Plus Kiawe wasn’t giving the race his full attention because Litten insisted on running beside them so he had to keep an eye out to make sure it didn’t get hurt.</p><p>Ash pushed open the gym doors, panting, and led Kiawe through a few hallways full of people who glanced at them once and then moved on. </p><p>“It’s a school for psychics, also!” explained Ash. “Sabrina, the gym leader, she’s got <em>super</em> amazing psychic powers!” He waved his hands around. “Like, whoa, bam! And then you’re all miniature and stuck in a weird neighborhood!” He put his hands down. “But I don’t think she does that anymore. She’s friends with a haunter, now, see!”</p><p>Kiawe did not see. Marowak perked up next to him though, at the mention of a ghost type.</p><p>The gym leader was in her battlefield room, sitting in a sort of throne-like chair at one end of it and reading a book. “I’m on lunch break,” she grumbled when the door opened, without looking up. “Can it wait?”</p><p>“Hi, Sabrina!” said Ash, ignoring her.</p><p>“Pika pikachu!” said Pikachu, waving.</p><p>“Wh—” she said, and finally shut her book and looked at them. “Ash?”</p><p>“It’s me!” said Ash. “It’s sure been awhile, hasn’t it? How’s Haunter?”</p><p>“You’re perky,” said Sabrina. She got up from her chair and put the book down, stretching out her arms. She was tall, and serious looking. Ash had said she was a powerful psychic, hadn’t he? He wondered what that meant, exactly. “Haunter’s great! And so am I. I presume you want a battle?”</p><p>“Mhm!” said Ash, nodding. “And that’s awesome!”</p><p>If Kiawe didn’t get his foot in, Ash would be having a gym battle. “I’m Kiawe of Akala Island, and this is Marowak,” he announced. “And we challenge you to a gym battle! Also, here’s Litten.”</p><p>“Litten!”</p><p>Sabrina tilted her head to the side, just a tiny bit. “He’s with you?” she asked Ash. </p><p>“Yep!” said Ash. “This is my friend Kiawe, he’s totally awesome! And this is my team, you know Pikachu but here’s Lycanroc and Incineroar. Kiawe, this is Sabrina!”</p><p>“I had guessed,” said Kiawe.</p><p>Sabrina glanced over at a clock. “I think I have time for a battle. Let me find one of my students to judge for us before we begin; they’re not supposed to disturb me on my lunch break.”</p><p>Ash raised a hand. “I can judge.”</p><p>Sabrina raised an eyebrow. “You can?”</p><p>“Yeah, Misty let me. ‘Cause I’m a Champion now.”</p><p>“You’re—” said Sabrina. Her face went through five whole expressions in two seconds. Kiawe realized she probably didn’t believe him, which was insulting. As though Ash would lie about something like that. As though <em>Alola</em> would lie about something like that. She probably didn’t even realize Alola had a League now.</p><p>Kiawe pointed at him. “He’s the first Champion of Alola! My region’s Champion. Look it up, if you don’t believe me. Ask anyone in Alola, they’ll know him! He’s a pride of our region, now!”</p><p>Ash blushed. </p><p>Sabrina put up her hands and laughed a little. “I believe you, I believe you! I’m afraid I don’t follow League news very closely; there really is too much to do around here, and my spare time is spent on research or with Haunter. Congratulations on your title, Ash.”</p><p>“Thanks, Sabrina!” said Ash. “So, can I judge, or d’you need to go find someone?”</p><p>“If I did go find someone, I wouldn’t have any time left for a battle,” she said. “Go ahead.” She waved Ash towards the judge’s spot and stepped into her own trainer’s box. “I hold one-on-one battles here, to test a trainer’s skill in raising individual pokemon to their strengths. Kiawe, are you prepared?”</p><p>“Of course,” he said back. He released Turtonator and Numel to watch and stepped up to the field. “Marowak?”</p><p>“Marowak!” said Marowak, dashing onto the field with its bone held high. Kiawe smiled, just slightly. Even without his promise to use Marowak this gym battle, he still would have picked it. It was perfect for this match. “Maro maro maro!”</p><p>“Excellent. Then I will be using…” She raised her voice a little. “Kadabra! I need your help!”</p><p>A kadabra appeared out of nowhere in front of him, with the tiny rush of air that signaled teleportation.</p><p>“Oh, awesome, great to see you Kadabra!” said Ash. “Give Kiawe a good battle, yeah?”</p><p>“Kadabra,” said Kadabra to him, nodding.</p><p>“Great!” said Ash. “Then in that case! This gym battle between the challenger, Kiawe of Akala Island, and the gym leader, Sabrina, is about to get started. The last pokemon standing wins! Go!”</p><p>“Marowak, start off with Shadow Bone!”</p><p>Marowak spun its bone and charged forwards. </p><p>“Teleport,” said Sabrina.</p><p>Kadabra disappeared.</p><p>Marowak charged again, in the new direction, and Kadabra teleported again. </p><p>“Try Bonemerang!” said Kiawe.</p><p>Kadabra teleported away just in time.</p><p>Kiawe hissed from between his teeth.</p><p>Marowak caught its bone and smacked it into the ground.</p><p>Sabrina tilted her head to the side and giggled, completely opposite to how composed she’d been before the battle. “Gotta catch us!”</p><p>Kiawe glanced at Ash, who was watching the battle with a small smile on his face. So was Pikachu, the exact same expression. Incineroar and Lycanroc were standing behind their trainer, staring in interest, and Torterra had released itself when the battle started to watch as well.</p><p>No help from there, then. Ash must have taken Misty’s instruction about judges being impartial to heart. Which worked for Kiawe! He wanted to win his gym battles on his own!</p><p>“Use Psybeam,” suggested Sabrina.</p><p>Kadabra paused in its teleporting to shoot one off, sending Marowak skidding across the battlefield floor.</p><p>“Are you alright?” shouted Kiawe. </p><p>“Maro marowak!” Marowak slammed its club into the ground again. “Maro!”</p><p>“Let’s go on the offensive!” said Kiawe. “Use Flare Blitz!”</p><p>Kadabra teleported away.</p><p>“Try Iron Head!”</p><p>Kadabra teleported away.</p><p>“Use Shadow Bone again!”</p><p>Kadabra teleported away.</p><p>“Bonemerang!”</p><p>Kadabra teleported away.</p><p>“Auuuugh!”</p><p>“Marowaaaaak!”</p><p>Sabrina laughed. “You’re getting nowhere fast, attacking blindly like that,” she said. “Kadabra, Psychic.”</p><p>Kadabra lifted Marowak into the air and slammed it harshly to the ground. “Maro…”</p><p>“Kadabra kadabra.”</p><p>Marowak shot to its feet, waving its club in the air. “Maro marowak! Marowak!”</p><p>“Ka~”</p><p>“Maro!”</p><p>Marowak didn’t wait for Kiawe’s command that time to throw a Bonemerang. </p><p>Kadabra teleported away.</p><p>Kiawe nearly screamed again. He was completely outclassed here even though Marowak had type advantage. That was so obvious it <em>hurt</em>. </p><p>At least with Misty he’d gotten a hit in <em>once</em>.</p><p>Marowak threw its bone again.</p><p>“Turto,” suggested Turtonator, from behind him. It touched his arm. “Turto turtonator.”</p><p>Kiawe wasn’t as good as Ash at understanding what pokemon were saying, but he could always tell when Turtonator was telling him to calm down. Turtonator was strong and steady and know when to go fast and when to go slow, and only gave him advice when it thought he really needed it. </p><p>If Turtonator thought he needed to calm down, he would figure out what needed calming down and then calm down.</p><p>He <em>was</em> getting pretty worked up, wasn’t he?</p><p>He took a deep breath. “Marowak!” he said. “Slow down a little.”</p><p>Marowak smacked its club into the ground. “Maro maro marowak! Maro!”</p><p>“I mean it!” said Kiawe. He could think again. Thank you, Turtonator. “Marowak, Kadabra’s baiting you!”</p><p>Marowak glanced at Kadabra, who flickered away into another teleport when it tried to throw a Bonemerang.</p><p>“Maro maro marowak!”</p><p>“Marowak!” said Kiawe. “Listen to me!”</p><p>His gaze slid to Ash, who smiled at him and glanced down at Lycanroc, petting it. So Ash thought he was doing the right thing. That was comforting, because Sabrina’s face was completely blank again at the other end of the room and Marowak was frustrated enough Kiawe couldn’t get through to it.</p><p>It was true that he almost never tried to calm down, and that he asked his pokemon to calm down even less. His heart burned with the fires of Wela Volcano, and his pokemon too, and their battling style was to hit hard and with as much power as they could! But Turtonator was telling him to calm down. </p><p>And what he’d learned from Misty, and also from Ash, was that if you’re at the disadvantage, you can still hit hard and with all your power, but you have to do it at the right time and in the right way.</p><p>“Marowak, please,” he begged, and Marowak finally looked away from Kadabra. “I have a plan!” He didn’t have a plan. Hopefully he’d have one by the time he was done talking. “Listen to me and calm down!”</p><p>“Maro?” said Marowak, shifting its grip on its club. </p><p>“Psybeam,” suggested Sabrina, so Kadabra paused in its teleporting and knocked Marowak into the ground.</p><p>That was <em>it</em>.</p><p>“Marowa—” started Kiawe. But Marowak was ignoring him again, for another futile Flare Blitz in Kadabra’s direction. “Marowak, I need you to listen to me!”</p><p>“Ma…” said Marowak, breathing hard. It was still finding Kadabra with its eyes and seething, but at least it wasn’t moving. Yet. Kiawe would have to work with that. With its fire and its rage.</p><p>“Spin your club for Shadow Bone but don’t use it yet!” said Kiawe.</p><p>Thankfully, Marowak listened. It muttered <em>maro-maro-maro</em> under its breath and spun its bone in its hands, faster and faster, lighting it up with blue-green ghost-fire. </p><p>“Wait for it…” said Kiawe. Out of the the corner of his eye, he saw Turtonator nod.</p><p>Sabrina smiled, the smallest little motion. “Kadabra, Psybeam again.”</p><p>Kadabra paused.</p><p>“Now!” said Kiawe.</p><p>Marowak dashed.</p><p>It met the incoming Psybeam head-on with its club, catching it in the ghost-fire. Blocking it, knocking it back, stunning Kadabra long enough for:</p><p>Marowak smashed its ghost-type club down on Kadabra’s head, and Kadabra dropped like a rock.</p><p>Marowak landed, panting.</p><p>Kadabra didn’t move.</p><p>Ash waited a few seconds. Then he raised an arm and said, “Kadabra is unable to battle! Kiawe and Marowak win!”</p><p>Marowak turned around towards him, and held its bone up to the sky, and Kiawe ran over and picked it up in his arms. “Thank you, Marowak! You were incredible! I knew I could count on you!”</p><p>“Maro,” said Marowak. It nodded into his shoulder. “Maro maro.”</p><p>Ash came over. “Hey, awesome job!” he said. He glanced at Kadabra, who was brushing itself off and getting up as Sabrina talked to it. “Teleporters are <em>so</em> hard to fight. You know, I never beat Sabrina when I got her badge! That was such an awesome battle!”</p><p>“You didn’t?” said Kiawe.</p><p>“Maro?”</p><p>“He did not,” agreed Sabrina. She walked up. “He did me an incredible service and found me a friend, instead, which is more important than any victory.”</p><p>“True,” said Ash, “but I’d still like to beat you! Rematch?”</p><p>Sabrina laughed. “For you? Of course. Once I’ve given your friend his badge, yes?”</p><p>“Oh yeah yeah yeah!” said Ash. “Yeah, congratulations Kiawe!”</p><p>Sabrina looked at Kiawe and reached into her pocket. Obscurely, Kiawe felt more intimidated by her now that she was close than when he’d been facing her on the battlefield. “For your quick thinking and ability to remain calm under pressure,” she said, “I present to you the Marsh Badge.”</p><p>“Thank you very much,” said Kiawe, and took it. He stared at it. His fourth badge! That was halfway to being able to enter the Kanto League! He could barely believe it.</p><p>“Marowak!” said Marowak, and hopped out of his arms to go chat with Turtonator and Numel about the battle. </p><p>“Now, Ash,” said Sabrina, “I believe you wanted— oh, dear.” </p><p>“Huh?” said Ash.</p><p>Sabrina was looking at the clock again, Kiawe realized, when he looked up from his new badge. “I am so sorry!” said Sabrina. “I’m teaching in two minutes! Ash, your battle will have to wait.” She glanced at them and all their pokemon, and her face cleared. “Come be my guests in class instead. The students will love you.” She grabbed their hands and dragged them towards the door. “Come on!”</p><p> </p><p>Kiawe stood in front of a classroom full of students, and tried not to fidget.</p><p>They’d arrived out of breath, dragged along by Sabrina, their pokemon skittering after them at a run or returning themselves. The students were all already there, waiting and talking to one another, and they’d mostly quieted when Sabrina burst through the door. Kiawe wondered if this was what Professor Kukui felt like every day, like a thousand people were staring at him, and decided on the spot that he would never ever be a classroom teacher.</p><p>“My apologies, everyone,” she said, catching her breath. The students were mostly kids younger than or around beginning trainer age but scattered among them were a few teenagers, a pair of adults, and a dignified older woman with white hair and an espurr perched on her shoulder. “I’m afraid I was held up by gym leader business, and Kadabra is resting so it will be later than me today. But I brought you some special guests.”</p><p>Ash and Kiawe shared at look. </p><p>Some of the younger students started muttering. </p><p>“Ash and Kiawe,” she continued, undeterred. “This is my afternoon class. Class, this is Kiawe, of Akala Island,” she said. “In Alola, I believe, yes?”</p><p>Kiawe nodded. </p><p>“He is currently challenging Kanto’s gyms, and won my badge earlier.”</p><p>“But Miss Sabrina,” interrupted one of the kids who looked almost trainer-age. “You <em>said</em> we could <em>watch</em> your next gym battle! Not <em>fair</em>.”</p><p>“I’m sorry, Cameron. But let me finish introducing my guests, yes?”</p><p>“Sorry, Miss Sabrina.”</p><p>She gestured at Ash. “This is Ash from Pallet Town. He won my badge a long time ago, and he holds a title you may have heard of.”</p><p>“Hi everyone!” said Ash. He waved. So did Pikachu. “Are you <em>all</em> psychics? That’s awesome, there’s like twenty of you in here! So cool!”</p><p>“Yeah!” said Cameron. They waved a spoon around. “We’re all psychic! Miss Sabrina’s teaching us how to use our powers!”</p><p>“That’s totally awesome!” said Ash. He turned to Sabrina and grinned. “I’m so happy for you!”</p><p>“Thank you, Ash,” she said. She turned to the class. “Now, can anyone tell me why you think I brought these two with me?”</p><p>One of a pair of twin girls with matching solosis raised her hand. “Tasha and me think they did something cool in their battle with you!”</p><p>“Perhaps,” said Sabrina. “How about you, Amanda?”</p><p>A teenager with no visible pokemon and eyes shadowed like she hadn’t slept in a week rested her hand on her cheek. “Regional variance, right?” she said. She pointed at Marowak with her spare hand. “That’s not a kantonian marowak.”</p><p>“Maro!” said Marowak, delighting in the attention.</p><p>“Marowak is not a <em>that</em>,” snapped Kiawe.</p><p>“Correct,” said Sabrina. “Alolan Marowak is a fire and ghost type. As you’ll all remember, one of the aims of this class is to teach you not only about how to manage and make use of your powers, but also about what they mean for you when encountering pokemon.”</p><p>A kid with an abra made a face. “Yeah, we’re like, practically psychic-types, we talked about this last week. And the week before. What’s it matter now?”</p><p>“What it matters now,” said Sabrina, primly, “is you never know whether someone’s pokemon will be the type you think it is. Kiawe, are there any alolan variants who are dark type?”</p><p>Kiawe frowned. “I don’t know,” he said, after thinking it over. “I don’t know what’s normal in Kanto.”</p><p>“Rattata!” contributed Ash. “Kiawe, kantonian ratatta are pure normal types, did you know?”</p><p>Kiawe made a face. “Seriously?” They’d seen ratatta a few times on this journey through Kanto, and he’d known they were weird, but he hadn’t realized they lost a type. Regional variance was the <em>weirdest</em> thing.</p><p>Sabrina looked at her class. “You see? Even the most common pokemon can vary in type, and any pokemon can learn an attack you’re weak to, so never assume you’ll be unaffected or that you can handle something without help.” She clapped her hands together. “Now, we’ll practice spoon bending for twenty minutes, and then,” she glanced at Ash, “Ash, I believe I promised you a battle? Would you like to make that an exhibition battle for my class?”</p><p>“Yeah!” said Ash. “Hey, I know, I’ll run to the pokemon center to check on Kadabra for you, then we can have the battle properly!”</p><p>“Yes!” said Cameron. “Yes, yes, yes!”</p><p>“That sounds wonderful,” said Sabrina. “You know where the pokemon center is, yes?”</p><p>“Yeah, totally! We’ll be back soon!” Ash grabbed Kiawe’s arm and dragged him out of the room. “C’mon, Kiawe, let’s go meet up with Kadabra and tell Professor Oak about your gym battle!”</p><p>Sabrina started talking to her class again as they dashed down the hall. “And now, please get out your spoons…”</p><p> </p><p>They got lost. </p><p>Kiawe decided he really shouldn’t be surprised, because Saffron City was big and ugly and smelled nothing like saffron.</p><p>The pokemon center was apparently three blocks closer to the gym than they’d tried, and around a left turn, but they managed to find a little park where Ash pointed out a stantler instead of finding the pokemon center. Then he got distracted by a flight of pidgey after the stantler disappeared, and Kiawe had to remind him he wanted to battle Sabrina to stop him running off after an ariados he’d spotted. Not that Kiawe was very interested in leaving the park, because it wasn’t anything like Alola but at least it wasn’t the <em>city</em>.</p><p>It was Kadabra who found them, instead, eventually. </p><p>It teleported in, no worse for wear from Marowak’s Shadow Bone, clucked at them disapprovingly, and then gestured for the pokemon to return themselves. Which they did, except Litten, who jumped into Kiawe’s arms instead, and Pikachu, of course. </p><p>Then it touched them all who were left and teleported them back into Sabrina’s classroom. </p><p>She was waiting for them, and some of the younger students laughed when Kiawe and Ash stumbled from the teleport. Kiawe felt a little queasy, and Ash looked worse-off than him. </p><p>Litten was fine, though. It darted onto his head and said, “Lit! Lit lit!”</p><p>“Glad to see Kadabra found you,” said Sabrina. “I hope you enjoyed Saffron City!”</p><p>Kiawe had not enjoyed Saffron City.</p><p>“Sorry!” said Ash. “We got lost! I’m glad Kadabra’s doing alright, are we having that battle now?”</p><p>“If you’re up for it,” said Sabrina. She glanced at her class. “Some of these people have been so excited they couldn’t concentrate on their training today, I think.”</p><p>“<em>Well</em>, a battle’s exciting!” said Cameron.</p><p>“Yeah!” said Ash. “I’m always up for a battle! How about you, Pikachu? Ready for that rematch with Kadabra?”</p><p> </p><p>Yes, Ash had won the Marsh Badge fair and square the first time. Sure, it was a non-traditional victory, but Sabrina had judged him worthy of it, so the League had had no problem with him having it, and he’d gotten into the Indigo Plateau Conference with it just fine. </p><p>But wow did it feel good to finally beat her in a proper match.</p><p>Him and Pikachu had had a fast-paced battle with Kadabra that had them breaking up the field with Iron Tail, and using two totally different variants of Counter-Shield, figuring out in the middle of the battle how to slow down Kadabra’s teleport pattern just enough with Electroweb traps to get in a Quick Attack, and he’d caught Kadabra using Recover like at least three times which was totally cheap, and him and Pikachu had had <em>such</em> a good time. Kadabra was so strong!</p><p>And the students all had fun, too. The one who’d been complaining about not seeing Kiawe’s gym battle was totally into it, cheering on the side, and the old lady with the meowstic introduced herself as Rebecca after he’d won and complimented Pikachu’s fluidity of movement.</p><p>“Thanks!” he said. “I’m doing the contest circuit right now, so we’ve been training really hard!”</p><p>She nodded. “It shows.” She pursed her lips. “I <em>swear</em> I recognize you — and your style — from somewhere…”</p><p>“I’ve learned from a lot of people all over the place!” Ash shrugged. “Maybe you’ve met one of them? Are you a battle trainer?”</p><p>She waved her hand. “Ah, a bit, when I was younger. Did a tour of Sinnoh back then and placed top 16 in the League. Nothing too special, given I settled down as a poffin chef a few years later — my wife was a coordinator for a bit, you know, so we started our little shop together — but my pokemon and I can battle in a pinch.”</p><p>“Lycan?” said Lycanroc.</p><p>Ash glanced down. “Yeah, poffins are from Sinnoh! Dawn makes super good ones, Torterra could tell you!” He released Torterra, who hadn’t decided to watch the battle on account of being too big. “Torterra, you should tell Lycanroc about Dawn’s poffins!”</p><p>“Terra?” Torterra looked at him like <em>why can’t</em> you <em>tell Lycanroc about Dawn’s poffins? </em></p><p>“’Cause I’m talking to Rebecca!” said Ash. “That’s this lady,” he clarified, gesturing at her. “Plus you’re the one who ate them, you’re a pokemon not me!”</p><p>Rebecca laughed. “Well, feel free to stop by my shop before you leave Saffron City. I may not be living back home in Hearthome City anymore, but my poffins are still to die for. And just for you, I’ll give you a friend’s discount, yeah?”</p><p>“You <em>will</em>? Awesome!” He found Kiawe with his eyes. He was talking to Sabrina as Litten played tag with Kadabra around them. “Kiawe, we gotta try Rebecca’s poffins before we leave!” he shouted, and then spun back to her. “Hey, Rebecca, we should totally have a battle!”</p><p>She waved her hand, dismissively. “Our skill levels are hardly convergent. I’m afraid neither of us would have any fun at all.”</p><p>“Don’t say <em>that</em>,” said Ash. “As long as everyone is giving it their all, a battle’s always fun, no matter what!”</p><p>“Pikachu!”</p><p>She squinted at him. “I’ll think about it.”</p><p>“That’s great, thanks!”</p><p>“That wasn’t a yes,” she said, laughing again. Then she sighed. “Well, it’s getting late. I’ll see you at the shop, yes? Soon? Sabrina can give you directions.”</p><p>“Yeah!” said Ash. “See you later!”</p><p>He waved her goodbye, and then wandered over to talk to Torterra and Lycanroc about poffins, because it looked like Lycanroc just totally wasn’t getting it!</p><p>Once all the students had left and Sabrina was using her psychic powers to fix up the battlefield (so cool!) from what Ash and Pikachu had done to it, she gestured them over. </p><p>They waited for a bit while she concentrated really hard on making the floor all nice, and then she said, “I don’t know how long you two are planning on staying in the city, but I’m taking both my classes on a field trip to the Tower of Terror in Lavender Town tomorrow. If you want to come along?”</p><p>“And see Haunter again?” said Ash. “Yeah! Totally! Kiawe, we gotta go!”</p><p> </p><p>The next day dawned clear and bright, perfect for a field trip. Lavender Town was just far enough away that Sabrina had asked everyone with cars — or, in some cases, who had a parent with a car — to please help carpool with everyone who didn’t, and she herself crammed Ash, Kiawe, and the solosis twins — Tasha and Stacy — into a car she was borrowing from her father. </p><p>She didn’t usually need to drive, because she lived in a room on the gym’s second floor, but she said she knew how just in case. Ash thought it was more important that she knew how to stop everyone crashing into things with her psychic powers just in case, but he didn’t say that.</p><p>Tasha and Stacy chatted with them about what they were learning in school and what Ash and Kiawe had seen on their journey so far — “<em>four</em> gym badges? whoa…” “Dad and Dad won’t let <em>us</em> go on our journey until we pass Miss Sabrina’s class, it’s not fair!” — and Sabrina stared fixedly at the road. </p><p>They were the second to arrive at the meeting point, a small parking lot in a field close enough to the Tower that Ash could see it peeking over the trees. Rebecca and a woman who must have been her wife were there already, sitting in their car while three of the other students, some of the ones young enough to not have a pokemon yet, argued about a nice rock and a fourth, a teenager about Clemont’s age, rested a bike against a tree and leaned to show their girafarig something on their phone. </p><p>As soon as Ash tumbled out of the car, Rebecca stood up and pointed at him. </p><p>“You!” she said. </p><p>“Me?” said Ash. “Alola, Rebecca! Good morning!”</p><p>“You!” she said. “You competed in the Sinnoh League!”</p><p>“I did!” said Ash. </p><p>“You did?” said Tasha and Stacy.</p><p>“Oh, yeah, you mentioned that,” said Kiawe. “With Torterra, right.”</p><p>“Right!” said Ash.</p><p>“<em>You</em> competed in the Sinnoh League,” repeated Rebecca, still pointing at him with an accusing finger. Her wife looked amused. “And not only that, you were the one trainer who managed to beat that darkrai. I knew I recognized you from somewhere!”</p><p>“Oh, you were watching that?” said Ash. “Neat!”</p><p>Everyone was staring at him, except Kiawe, who was only sort of staring at him, because Litten was trying to talk him into letting it go play on the road.</p><p>“Half of <em>Sinnoh</em> was watching that,” said Rebecca.</p><p>“And the other half was sat down and shown replays,” noted her wife. “Please excuse Rebecca, she misses being able to watch the Lily of the Valley Conference live. They don’t show it on Kanto television, you know.”</p><p>“One of the downsides of moving here,” agreed Rebecca, sighing. “But I <em>knew</em> I recognized your style.”</p><p>“That’s so amazing!” said Ash. He glanced at Pikachu, who looked as excited as he was. “You can remember a battle style like that? So cool! We should totally have a battle!”</p><p>“I’ll admit I’m even less inclined to the thought now,” said Rebecca.</p><p>“Aw, come on, it’ll be fun!” said Ash. “Just a short battle while we wait?”</p><p>“Excuse me,” interrupted the teenager with the phone and the girafarig, “can we please go back to the bit where you <em>beat up a darkrai</em>?”</p><p>Kiawe picked up Litten. “I’d be more impressed if I hadn’t watched him defeat Tapu Koko to become Alola’s new Champion,” he said, in a monotone.</p><p>Three people opened their mouths at once.</p><p>Then all the rest of the students arrived in four consecutive cars, and they had to all shut their mouths because Sabrina started class.</p><p> </p><p>Kiawe was not super excited about seeing ghosts. </p><p>He had Marowak. Marowak was great, fantastic, an incredible partner who burned like Wela Volcano. He was fine with Marowak. And he was always excited to face ghost-types on the battlefield, where he could test his strength against them.</p><p>He was less fine with visiting a tower that was apparently totally full of ghosts. </p><p>But Ash had been excited, and now he was chatting animatedly with Sabrina about the haunter they both knew, so Kiawe had agreed to the trip. </p><p>When they walked up to the Tower of Terror, Ash had remarked on how nice it looked. That had started Sabrina talking about the renovations she’d campaigned for with Haunter, which had turned it into a ghost-type paradise that was also coincidentally much safer for visitors than it used to be. Apparently Agatha came by sometimes, and it was doing great things for Lavender Town’s tourist economy, and they even had a family of sandygast who’d moved in awhile back! Which <em>was</em> amazing. Kiawe hoped they didn’t feel as homesick as he did.</p><p>But the entrance was dark and gloomy, and the doors opened on their own, and Kiawe just could not muster the cheer Ash and Marowak were exhibiting as they skipped right in. </p><p>Sabrina turned around to the class. “Feel free to explore—” Ash and Marowak dashed off in opposite directions. “—but please don’t disturb the pokemon if they don’t want to be disturbed. And…” She stepped so that her face was fully shadowed and cackled a soul-chilling cackle. “Beware. You are all psychics in a ghost-type lair, after all.”</p><p>Kiawe shivered. The two older ladies walked off with Sabrina, talking pleasantly, and Kiawe resolved himself to locate Marowak, Ash, and the sandygast, and then wait until the trip was over.</p><p>That was easier said than done. The halls and staircases twisted and turned, and doors slammed unexpectedly shut, and ghost-fire shone in the corners of his vision. He ended up being followed around by two of the younger students, both of them under trainer age, and either friends or siblings. He couldn’t tell.</p><p>He handed one of them Litten when it started squirming — no way was he letting it wander around on its own in a haunted tower! — so that they could have a distraction from the creepier parts of the tower (they’d started out confident and then gotten more and more terrified the further in they went), and then led the way with what he hoped was confidence up some staircases, checking every room along the way. </p><p>Hopefully he’d find Marowak first. As much as it liked to play tricks sometimes, it would be a comfort to have nearby, especially because Turtonator and Numel couldn’t walk outside their pokeballs up this many rickety stairs. </p><p>He pulled open the next door. He stepped inside, tentatively, and the siblings followed him. It was a bedroom of some sort, a curtained bed, a candle burning with ghost-fire on the nightstand, a—</p><p>The door slammed shut behind them.</p><p>Someone shrieked. It might have been him. </p><p>Litten breathed out a panicked Ember, lighting up a dark shadow in the corner of the room. </p><p>Someone laughed, slow and hollow. </p><p>The lock clicked in the door. </p><p>Heavy, gasping silence.</p><p>“Boo!”</p><p>A wave of force splashed out from one of the siblings.</p><p>The other kid barely seemed affected at all, but Litten yelped and Kiawe staggered and picture frames clattered off shelves and the candle — oh, it was a litwick — nearly tipped right off the nightstand and the dark shadow on the other end of the room hit the ground with a <em>crash</em>.</p><p>“<em>Ow</em>,” complained Ash, who was the dark shadow apparently. </p><p>“Haunter,” grumbled a haunter, flicking on the light switch. </p><p>“Gastly…” added a gastly, floating in the air, nearly invisible until Kiawe blinked sudden light out of his eyes. </p><p>“Gengar!” laughed a gengar, emerging from the ground.</p><p>“I’m really, really, really sorry!” apologized one of the siblings, ducking into an apologetic bow. “You really startled me, I was so afraid!”</p><p>“He didn’t mean it!” agreed the other one, stepping in front of xer friend. “We were just scared!”</p><p>Ash pushed himself back up to standing, muttering something about being weak to psychic types. He laughed. “Don’t worry about it! We totally deserved that, didn’t we, everyone?” </p><p>All the ghost types cackled. </p><p>Even though the room was lit up brightly, Kiawe shivered a little. </p><p>“They just wanted to play a trick!” explained Ash. “It’s been a long time since we’ve seen each other, so I said I’d help them out.”</p><p>Kiawe pointed at him, and pretended he wasn’t shaking. Litten leapt into his arms, which helped. “Do not ever do that again.”</p><p>“Aw, come on, Kiawe,” whined Ash. None of his pokemon were visible, so apparently they all had better sense than their trainer. “We were hoping to catch Sabrina next! It’ll be great!”</p><p>“You wanna put Miss Sabrina in a trap?” said one of the siblings.</p><p>“You really think you can catch her?” said the other.</p><p>“Yeah!” said Ash. “Haunter’s got a really great plan, ‘cause it’s friends with her!”</p><p>“Can we help? Can we help?” asked the first sibling.</p><p>“I wanna scare Miss Sabrina!”</p><p>Kiawe sighed. </p><p>“I’m going to go find the sandygast,” he announced, and left the room.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>regular humans having a type weakness is THE funniest thing in the world to me</p><p>note on the update schedule: we're switching to every-other-week updates, as you may have guessed from the lack of update last week!<br/>the vast majority of this fic was pre-written during nano, but the last quarter has been a pain to get my brain to focus on, so i'm stretching out my buffer for my own sake if nothing else. thanks for understanding!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Vermilion City</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>They left Saffron City two days later, at midmorning, with Ash carrying an entire bag of Rebecca and her wife’s poffins. He’d even eventually managed to talk her into having a quick battle with him! Of course, it’d ended when Team Rocket arrived and tried to steal the entire poffin shop right out of the ground for some reason and they had to stop them, but it was fun anyway. </p><p>Rebecca’d refused to let them pay <em>anything</em> for poffins after they helped rescue her shop, so now Ash had an entire bag of them hanging off his arm and Pikachu was snacking on one on his shoulder. </p><p>“Where are we going next?” asked Kiawe, feeding a poffin to Litten. </p><p>Ash shrugged. He kept his eyes on the road in front of them, just in case a cool pokemon turned up. “I was thinking Vermilion City? The gym leader there’s super super strong, isn’t he Pikachu!”</p><p>“Pika pika!” agreed Pikachu. </p><p>“Fine by me,” said Kiawe. “What type does he use?”</p><p>“Electric types!” said Ash. “He’s got a raichu and everything! A kantonian raichu, I mean, which are just electric-types, not electric and psychic like they are in Alola. Although maybe he does have an alolan raichu!” He shrugged. “I dunno! It’d be pretty cool if he did!”</p><p>Kiawe nodded. “Like a piece of home. Like those sandygast!”</p><p>“Yeah!” said Ash. He paused. “Though I don’t think Lt Surge would fit in very well in Alola, do you Pikachu?”</p><p>“Pika pikachu, pika.”</p><p>“Yeah,” agreed Ash. “He wouldn’t get along with anyone! Too intense. And not like alolan intense, either!”</p><p>Then Rowlet, who was flying with them instead of sleeping for once, squawked that there was something cool up ahead, so they dropped the conversation and went to look at what turned out to be a totally awesome big boulder with bite marks on it! </p><p> </p><p>A few days later, mostly not lost, they were passing through a little town called Yarrow that unfortunately didn’t have a contest hall. It was cloudy, almost-but-not-quite rainy, but Kiawe wanted to get to his gym battle so they decided not to stay the night.</p><p>So they were most of the way through the town, they’d even stopped by the pokemon center to make sure their pokemon were doing alright and gotten lunch at the one restaurant and everything, when Ash heard the sound of arguing. </p><p>He ran towards it.</p><p>“—cuse me!” someone was saying. A woman, with lots of grey-blue hair. She was facing off with two men, hands on her hips. “If you believe the only purpose of a first-evolution pokemon is to evolve, I pity your pokemon! You’re making me ashamed to know I’m from this region.”</p><p>“Yeah!” said Ash, stopping running, right next to the woman. “I dunno what you’re all talking about, but unevolved pokemon are totally strong! Me and Pikachu can beat anyone, no doubt!”</p><p>The woman looked at him, and at Pikachu, and at Kiawe running up with Litten and Marowak — the rest of their teams had decided to return themselves when the clouds started threatening rain earlier — and then she nodded once. </p><p>“No idea who you are, but thanks for backup,” she said. “I can handle myself, but it never hurts.”</p><p>“Yeah!” said Ash.</p><p>The two men looked at each other. One of them, who had on a hat, said, “We don’t need you butting in on this debate, kid.”</p><p>The other one said, “Yeah, buzz off and let the adults talk it out.”</p><p>Ash thought for about half a second, and then made a face. “Nah. Two against one isn’t fair. And you’re wrong, anyway! All my pokemon are strong, if they decide to evolve or not!”</p><p>The man with the hat scoffed. Someone leaned out of the window of their house to watch the show.</p><p>The woman angled a glance at Ash through her hair. “Tag battle?”</p><p>“You bet!” said Ash back. He turned to the men. “Hey, wanna have a tag battle? I’ll use Pikachu, and you’ll see how strong not fully evolved pokemon can be!”</p><p>“And I’ll use Murkrow!” announced the woman, tossing a pokeball in the air. “Two pokemon not yet in their final evolutions. Are you on?”</p><p>The men looked at each other. </p><p>“Thanks for the opportunity to prove our point,” said the one with the hat.</p><p>“And thanks for the tips on which pokemon to choose,” said the other.</p><p>“You’re on,” said both of them. “Prepare to lose!”</p><p>Kiawe stepped automatically into the judge’s position as they all spread out, and Pikachu and Murkrow made their way to the battlefield. The woman caught Ash’s eyes and smiled slightly. “Try to keep up!”</p><p>“You bet!” said Ash.</p><p>“Donphan!” said the one with the hat.</p><p>“Clefable!” said the one without a hat. </p><p>They threw their pokeballs. </p><p>“Hey, whoa, what an awesome donphan and clefable!” said Ash. The clefable smirked. The donphan roared. “This is gonna be a totally awesome battle, I can already tell!”</p><p>Kiawe narrowed his eyes. Ash felt kinda bad for him. Well, they could spar later! </p><p>He threw his hand down. “Begin!”</p><p>“Pikachu, start off with Quick Attack!”</p><p>“Murkrow, join in!”</p><p>Pikachu and Murkrow streaked towards Donphan as identical white-edged blurs and hit hard.</p><p>“Hey!” said the man with the hat and also the donphan. “Donphan, get that pikachu with Bulldoze!”</p><p>“Murkrow, get it out of the way!”</p><p>Murkrow swooped down and picked Pikachu up in its talons just ahead of the Bulldoze shockwave.</p><p>“Thanks!” said Ash. He could work with this. Clefable was launching a Moonblast. “Pikachu, Iron Tail!”</p><p>“Murkrow, up!”</p><p>Murkrow lifted Pikachu to the right height, and Pikachu turned its tail silver and knocked the Moonblast right back at Clefable, where it exploded.</p><p>Ash and the woman grinned at each other.</p><p>“Alright, Pikachu, Electroweb!”</p><p>Pikachu threw an Electroweb at Clefable, one of the contest ones with a spreading branches pattern even though those ones were a bit weaker than normal Electrowebs. It was strong enough to hold Clefable, though.</p><p>“Murkrow, Feint Attack!”</p><p>“Pikachu!” called Ash. Pikachu nodded briefly, and then Murkrow dipped out of sight and reappeared behind Donphan. It hit hard.</p><p>“Hey!” said the man with the hat and the donphan. “No fair!”</p><p>“I do train dark types,” said the woman.</p><p>And then Pikachu hit Donphan with an Iron Tail and knocked it out.</p><p>The man hissed from between his teeth and recalled Donphan. </p><p>“It’s up to us, then,” said the man who didn’t have a hat but did have a clefable, to Clefable, who was just now managing to break out of the Electroweb net. “Use Moonblast!”</p><p>Ash and the woman nodded at each other, and then the woman nodded at Murkrow, who put Pikachu down on the ground. </p><p>The Moonblast launched.</p><p>“Dodge!” she said, and Murkrow did.</p><p>“Thunderbolt!” Ash said, and Pikachu did.</p><p>Clefable staggered. </p><p>“Moonblast! Get rid of that murkrow already!”</p><p>“Sucker Punch!”</p><p>Clefable fell.</p><p>Ash blinked a little, and then looked at Kiawe, who seemed to finally remember that he’d appointed himself the battle judge and said, “Clefable is unable to battle! Pikachu and Murkrow win!”</p><p>“Pika pikachu!” cheered Pikachu.</p><p>“Krow,” added Murkrow, landing next to it. “Krow krow.”</p><p>“Hey, awesome!” said Ash. He held up his hand to high-five the woman, who took a second but then went through with it. “We were totally in synch! Your murkrow’s amazing!”</p><p>“That was fun,” said the woman. She held out her arm and Murkrow flew over to perch on it, so Pikachu climbed back up to Ash’s shoulders. “And very satisfying. The bond between your pikachu and you is obvious!”</p><p>“Hey, thanks!”</p><p>The man without a hat but with a clefable had returned Clefable by now, and the two men walked up to them, grumbling.</p><p>“You <em>must</em> have cheated,” said the one with a hat and a donphan. “A victory that quick against fully-evolved pokemon with type advantage? No <em>way</em>.”</p><p>“Who are you people, anyway?” asked the one without a hat but with a clefable.</p><p>Which was kind of a weird question to ask when they hadn’t introduced themselves either, but whatever. Ash waved a little. “I’m Ash Ketchum, from Pallet Town! And this is my partner Pikachu!”</p><p>“Pika pikachu!” added Pikachu. Ash scratched it on the tail. “Chaa…”</p><p>“<em>Oh,</em>” said the woman. “<em>You’re</em> the new Champion of Alola.”</p><p>“That’s me!” said Ash, as the two men glanced at each other. “How’d you know?”</p><p>“Lance won’t shut up about you.”</p><p>“Krow, krow,” agreed the murkrow, deadpan.</p><p>“Whoa, seriously?” said Ash.</p><p>The woman laughed. “He really won’t. I don’t even see him that often; I can’t imagine how his G-Men deal with it.” She pushed some hair back behind her ear. “Oh, sorry, it’s nice to meet you! I’m Karen, of the Kanto Elite Four.”</p><p>The two men glanced at each other again.</p><p>“Whoa, that’s awesome!” said Ash. An Elite Four member! “So cool! No wonder you and Murkrow are so strong!”</p><p>“I should be saying the same thing to you and Pikachu,” she said back. “Hey, I haven’t had a properly entertaining battle in <em>ages</em>. Three on three match?”</p><p>“Yes!” said Ash. He turned his head to look at Kiawe, who was shivering a little because the clouds were starting to drop mist. Not that Ash would ever be able to talk him into wearing a shirt. “Sorry, Kiawe, might be a bit more before we leave Yarrow Town, Karen just challenged me to a battle!” </p><p>He looked up from holding Litten and walked over. </p><p>“You can have one after!” added Ash, trying to make him stop looking vaguely upset. He turned around back to Karen. “He can, can’t he? He’s doing the gym challenge right now, you know! Kiawe and his team are awesome!”</p><p>“I’d never refuse,” said Karen. “Especially with such a glowing recommendation!”</p><p>The two men glanced at each other again.</p><p>“Does not telling us they’re an Elite Four member and a foreign Champion count as cheating?” asked the man with the hat and the donphan.</p><p>“I don’t know,” said the man without a hat but with a clefable. “But it does explain the outcome.”</p><p> </p><p>“I hate people like that,” said Karen, as they walked towards the pokemon center to borrow its battlefield. “Bit immature of me to start a fight with them, I’ll admit, but they get on my nerves. People are so selfish!”</p><p>Ash nodded. People who asked why he didn’t evolve Pikachu were so annoying. If a pokemon wanted to evolve, it evolved! And if it didn’t want to, then you worked with it to take advantage of it not evolving! That was how it worked. “The tag battle was super fun though! We all worked together so well!”</p><p>“It was impressive,” agreed Kiawe, shivering.</p><p>Karen looked at him, and the fact that he wasn’t wearing a shirt. Then she looked at the sky, which looked about to start raining on them for real. “You know,” she said. “I think we should have those battles tomorrow.”</p><p>“Maybe,” said Ash.</p><p>“I’m fine!” said Kiawe. A raindrop fell on his head, though, so Ash didn’t believe him.</p><p>So they all went inside the pokemon center instead of around the back to the battlefield and sat around one of the tables with some tea while they all met each other’s teams. Karen was mostly interested in Incineroar, because it turned out she really liked dark types, which was so cool! And she had an umbreon like Gladion had, and a houndoom, which <em>Kiawe</em> thought was super cool, and an absol, and a spiritomb like Cynthia, and a weavile too! They were all so cool! Ash was so excited to fight her!</p><p>She asked about alolan dark types, when they were done with introductions, so Ash and Kiawe told her all about alolan rattata and alolan meowth, and alolan grimer also, and then Ash told her about his Grand Trial with Nanu, and she told them all about her adventures with Houndoom’s pack back when it was a houndour, which was super exciting.</p><p>“So, who’s Lance?” asked Kiawe eventually. “You keep mentioning him.”</p><p>“He’s the Champion of Kanto!” said Ash.</p><p>“And Johto,” added Karen. </p><p>“He’s super strong, and he has a dragonite, and a red gyarados, and he totally helped me and Pikachu out when Pikachu got possessed by Groudon!” Ash paused for a moment. “Wait, why can <em>he</em> be the Champion of two regions but I can’t enter the Kanto League now that I’m a Champion?”</p><p>“I don’t know.” Karen petted Houndoom on one of its horns. “I’m a recent addition to the Elite Four, so he’s been Champion of both for my whole tenure. At a guess, because they changed the rules after he won the Johto Championship?”</p><p>“So unfair!” said Ash. </p><p>“You’ll have to ask him yourself,” said Karen. </p><p>“I will!” said Ash.</p><p>Kiawe got up and wandered over to the videophone to call his family. Ash sat at the table with Karen for a bit longer, talking about all the dark types she’d met and also about Serena’s Pancham, because he remembered halfway through the conversation that it also was a dark type! And so was Greninja! “Sorry I can’t introduce you to Greninja,” he said, making a face. “It had to stay in Kalos to help out Squishy!”</p><p>Karen took another sip of tea, and then held out the cup for Murkrow to take a drink out of. “After the Kalos Crisis, yes? I’d forgotten you were there for that.”</p><p>“Yeah,” said Ash. He liked to forget about it too, so he didn’t blame her. “Oh, I know, you should meet Scraggy! And Krookodile! They’re my pokemon from Unova, and they’re both dark-types, they’re awesome!”</p><p>“I’d love to,” said Karen. She took the cup of tea back from Murkrow, and then frowned at Murkrow when she looked down and found all the tea gone. “Perhaps you could use them in our battle tomorrow?”</p><p>“Oh, man, that’s an awesome idea!” said Ash. Pikachu looked up from whatever it was doing with Lycanroc and Melmetal over by another table to see what he was shouting about, and then went back to ignoring him when it decided it was nothing important. “I’ll call Professor Oak as soon as Kiawe’s done talking with his parents and Mimo and Charizard!”</p><p>You could run into so many cool people on the road!</p><p> </p><p>Kiawe and Ash finally left Yarrow Town the next day. </p><p>Ash had had his battle with Karen, dark types against dark types, which was fascinating to watch because Karen was clearly much more experienced with the type itself than Ash was, but Ash was a more creative battler than her, and they ended the fight in a tie, Incineroar’s Flame Charge clashing with Absol’s Night Slash and knocking them both over.</p><p>And then it had been Kiawe’s turn. She’d sent out her houndoom against Turtonator, and they’d had a blazing-hot fire-type battle that Kiawe lost but only because it turned out Houndoom’s ability was Flash Fire. Battling against an Elite Four member was <em>amazing! </em></p><p>And then it was on to Vermilion City, with another strong trainer for him to face.</p><p>They arrived two more days later, after a run-in with Team Rocket that almost took Litten from him, and then a whole adventure where a very lost frillish attached itself to Ash’s head, and then another run-in with Team Rocket where they descended out of the sky in a giant mecha that tried to eat all the pokemon and also Ash and Kiawe. </p><p>Before they blasted off, Jessie told Ash about a contest in Myrtle Town in a few weeks, be there or be square, and Ash shouted “Thank you!” and then told Pikachu to Thunderbolt them anyway. Kiawe would never understand their relationship, no matter how hard he tried.</p><p> </p><p>It turned out Vermilion City was just as ugly as all the other cities in Kanto. Did they not know how to <em>build</em> here? </p><p>It was evening, so they went to the pokemon center for the night as soon as they arrived because the gym probably wouldn’t be open anyway, and handed their pokeballs to Nurse Joy, same as usual. Kiawe was never getting used to the Nurse Joy in Kanto having chansey with them.</p><p>Same as usual, they went to make their calls on the pokemon center videophones. Max was with Chili, this time, who introduced Kiawe to his pansear and had a rapid-fire discussion with him about water-type counters before Max interrupted to ask Ash about how his appeals were coming.</p><p>“Great!” said Max, a few minutes later. “Hey, you better call May, she’s in Petalburg right now, with Serena still!”</p><p>So Ash called his friends May and Serena after that, who Kiawe recognized vaguely from Ash running into class to show everyone in the room a video one time. The three of them started talking in really detailed contest terms after introductions were done, though, about point values and seal use and audience response, so Kiawe went to collect all the pokeballs from Nurse Joy and go train outside with his team.</p><p>He missed Alola.</p><p>He missed his team, he missed the sun, he missed the sight of Wela Volcano on the horizon offering smoke to the sky, he missed his family and the farm and waking up to Mimo’s face in the morning. </p><p>He missed flying in to class on Charizard, steadfast and strong, and he missed walking where he knew he had already walked, and his parents and grandparents and ancestors had walked, for centuries until knowledge of Alola was written into the soles of his feet, and he missed the silhouette of the islands as seen from the sky and he missed the smell of the sea.</p><p>He missed Alola. He missed being home. </p><p>Litten nudged his leg, so he scooped and it up and looked at it until it made a noise. </p><p>“All you know is Kanto,” he told it, his voice breaking. It was so small. “You’ve never been home.”</p><p>“Numel?” said Numel, coming up close. </p><p>“You too,” said Kiawe. “You’ve never seen <em>Alola</em>.” He blinked, rapidly. “You’ve never seen snow glittering on Mount Lanakila, or been to the Manalo Festival, or watched a sunrise over the ocean, or eaten malasadas with all your friends. You’ve never met Kahuna Olivia, or caught a glimpse of Tapu Lele that might have actually been the sun. You’ve never been home with me. You’ve never witnessed Alola’s majesty. I don’t know how you can bear it.”</p><p>“Num,” said Numel. It was night now, properly, and there was so much light in Vermilion City Kiawe could hardly see the stars. Numel let some smoke out of its back, like Wela Volcano in miniature, and that was enough to bring Kiawe to tears. “Mel?”</p><p>He collapsed to his knees to wrap his arms around its neck, bury his face in the warmth of it, to cry. Litten squirmed out of his grip to sit on its head, a bit alarmed, and Numel took a minute to realize what was happening but when it did, it nudged his shoulder with its jaw, gentle. He heard Turtonator come stand behind him, with Marowak muttering something around there too, and he took a deep breath.</p><p>“Turtonator,” said Turtonator, voice low and comforting.</p><p>“Do you miss it too, Turtonator?” he asked. “Do you, Marowak?”</p><p>“Nator,” agreed Turtonator. “Turtonator, turtonator.”</p><p>Marowak didn’t say anything, which was its own kind of answer and its own kind of longing. </p><p>Kiawe wiped at his eyes and sat down properly, looking at them all. Numel nudged his head, trying to be comforting.</p><p>“I’ve been thinking,” he said, eventually, when he was mostly not crying anymore and the phantom of Alola’s waves and Alola’s winds had calmed in his ears from their presence. “I’ve been thinking, and I think z-moves are weaker here.”</p><p>Marowak nodded. “Maro maro!”</p><p>“Litten?” said Litten, jumping back down to his lap. He hadn’t tried a z-move with Litten yet, no matter how much it wanted to. No matter how much he wanted to, to show it how wonderful they were. It needed to be stronger before he could be sure it wouldn’t collapse from the strain. </p><p>“I think so,” he said. He leaned back on his hands and looked up at what few stars he could see. “I think we’re too far away, from Alola and from the Tapu. We can still use them, but it’s hard, and they’re weak, because they’re not supposed to be here. They’re just supposed to be in Alola.”</p><p>“Turto,” agreed Turtonator, nodding, and Numel made an interested noise.</p><p>“I can’t wait to go home,” he admitted. He knew Ash loved Kanto, and loved traveling, and loved being lost, but Kiawe hated it, and he knew he was supposed to learn to love it and to enjoy his adventure, but he just hated it more and more the longer he was away from Alola. “You’ll all come back with me, right, when this journey is done?”</p><p>Turtonator nodded. Marowak slammed its club on the ground. Numel touched his head again, just a small nudge, and Litten mewled. </p><p>Kiawe teared up again. </p><p>“Then Litten and Numel, Turtonator and Marowak and I will have so many things to show you! And we’ll do proper z-moves together, and watch the sunset, and never ever leave again.”</p><p>“Litten!”</p><p>Numel’s smoke swirled in the air, playing off the city lights.</p><p>Kiawe missed home, overwhelmingly, unbearably. </p><p>He’d go back someday, though. Someday soon. And in the meantime, he’d use this trip to get stronger and stronger until he could defend Alola from anything that came its way.</p><p> </p><p>Vermilion’s gym was bright and shiny under the morning sun, and it was also as ugly as the rest of the city. <em>Why</em> had they made the roof all pointy and flat at the same time? Kiawe hated it, so he didn’t linger to look.</p><p>“I am Kiawe of Akala Island!” he announced, just inside the doorway. Ash had his hands in his pockets behind him. “And I challenge the Vermilion City gym leader to a match!”</p><p>“Well well well,” said the man who appeared at the other end of the entrance hall. “A little baby challenger, come to try his luck against Lt Surge. How many badges do you have, little baby?”</p><p>“Four!” said Kiawe. <em>This</em> was the Vermilion City gym leader? Kiawe didn’t like him. “Soon to be five.”</p><p>“Well aren’t you confident. Come along then—” He paused. “Ash Ketchum?”</p><p>Kiawe wasn’t ever surprised that Ash had apparently fought everyone in Kanto. He was a little surprised that apparently he was <em>remembered</em> by everyone in Kanto, even though he’d fought them ages and ages ago. But he’d be a lot more surprised about that when Ash stopped being ridiculously memorable.</p><p>“Hi!” said Ash. “How’s Raichu?”</p><p>Lt Surge stepped out of the doorway towards them both. “Well enough.” He gestured at Kiawe. “Is this your friend?”</p><p>“Yep!” said Ash. “Kiawe’s totally cool, he’ll beat you for sure!”</p><p>Lt Surge crossed his arms. “Sure,” he said. “Come on then and let’s see about that. I’m feeling merciful, so I’ll make your defeat quick.”</p><p>Kiawe followed him into the gym battlefield, frowning. He didn’t like this man. Not at all. He knelt down to talk with Litten. </p><p>“Go with Ash and Incineroar,” he said. “You’ll get to be in a gym battle soon, okay? But not quite yet!”</p><p>“Litten!” said Litten, and darted over to Ash.</p><p>“Marowak,” added Kiawe, “you go too. I’ll call you if I need you.”</p><p>“<em>Maro</em>,” complained Marowak. “Maro maro!”</p><p>“Fine,” said Kiawe. “You can stay with me in the trainer’s box. But don’t interfere, alright?”</p><p>“Maro…” said Marowak. Kiawe stood back up.</p><p>Lt Surge waved over one of the trainers hanging around to act as battle judge, and stepped into position. “You done with the chit-chat?” he asked.</p><p>“Yes,” said Kiawe.</p><p>“Then let’s get this party started.” He nodded at the judge. “If you will?”</p><p>“Right! This gym battle between—” They paused.</p><p>“Kiawe, of Akala Island,” filled in Kiawe.</p><p>“—Kiawe of Akala Island, the challenger, and Lt Surge, the gym leader, will now get underway. Each trainer will be allowed the use of two pokemon, and the battle will end when either trainer’s pokemon are all unable to continue. Only the challenger may substitute pokemon.” He signaled with his hand. “Begin!”</p><p>Kiawe didn’t waste a second. “Go, Turtonator!”</p><p>“So that’s your choice,” said Lt Surge. “A fire and dragon type. Pure power, as I thought. A philosophy I can get behind.” He nodded. “Go, Electrode!”</p><p>His pokeball burst to reveal another larger pokeball, with a face. Right. Electrode. Sophocles liked to bring them up, but he’d never seen one in person before. </p><p>“They like to explode!” shouted Ash, from the sidelines. “Watch out!”</p><p>“Got it, thanks!” said Kiawe back. </p><p>“Electrode,” said Lt Surge, “use Rain Dance.”</p><p>Clouds converged at the roof of the room, thick and heavy, and rain started to fall. </p><p>For Lunala’s sake… </p><p>But he firmed himself. “Turtonator! The fire in our spirits will not be put out!”</p><p>“Turtonator!”</p><p>“Use Flamethrower!”</p><p>“Electrode, Thunder!”</p><p>Turtonator’s Flamethrower streaked out, dampened by the rain, and flickered reddish on Electrode’s face: but the clouds tore open and released a massive Thunder. </p><p>It hit Turtonator dead-on, blinding Kiawe with its suddenness and its brightness.</p><p>He blinked open his eyes. Turtonator was still standing, which was good. Lt Surge was calling another Thunder, which was less good. </p><p>“Thunder never misses in rain!” called Ash. “Be careful, Kiawe!”</p><p>He <em>could</em> switch out Turtonator for Numel, who wouldn’t be affected by the Thunders. </p><p>But Numel hated rain, and being wet, and water, and would be slowed down by it in both morale and in actual speed. Maybe if he waited until the Rain Dance ran out to make the switch? But Electrode could always use Rain Dance all over again. </p><p>Marowak, maybe, but that locked him into not being able to use Numel the whole fight. But Turtonator couldn’t take too many more of those Thunders, but Numel couldn’t be wet, but Marowak— </p><p>Turtonator took another Thunder. Kiawe was thinking too much.</p><p>“Too scared to move, little baby?” taunted Lt Surge.</p><p>Kiawe’s fists clenched. “No way!” And no way was he losing to this man. He was going on the <em>offense</em>. “Turtonator, quick, Shell Smash! And then Dragon Tail!”</p><p>Turtonator used Shell Smash, trading all its defense for a boost in offense and speed, and then charged in a blur towards Electrode: and smacked it with Dragon Tail like it was playing Pokemon Base. </p><p>“Maro!” cheered Marowak, waving its club.</p><p>Electrode went flying, spinning head over… uh, the rest of the ball, and hit the side of the stadium hard. Kiawe thought maybe it was out of the battle, but the judge waited to call a loss.</p><p>“Thunder, once more!” ordered Lt Surge, instead of worrying over it, and sure enough Electrode rolled itself back right-side-up and sent another Thunder streaking out of the clouds. Turtonator was enveloped in blinding light.</p><p>“Turtonator!” screamed Kiawe. </p><p>But Turtonator was still standing. </p><p>“Turtonator, you’re amazing!” He threw his hand in the air. “Use Focus Blast!”</p><p>The Focus Blast hit.</p><p>Turtonator stayed standing. </p><p>The judge declared Turtonator the winner of the match.</p><p>Lt Surge recalled Electrode and sent out a raichu.</p><p>The rain stopped.</p><p>Lt Surge opened his mouth.</p><p>Turtonator fell over.</p><p> </p><p>“Turtonator is… unable to battle?” said the judge. Ash couldn’t blame them for being a bit confused, because Turtonator was super strong and had managed to stay standing for so long after the third Thunder that it was a bit disappointing for it to fall over now, but it continued to be on the ground so they eventually started talking again. “Raichu wins! Will the challenger send out his second pokemon?”</p><p>Kiawe didn’t hesitate. “Numel, go!”</p><p>Marowak moaned in disappointment, and Ash just caught the briefest flicker of irritation cross Lt Surge’s face before he masked it with a smirk. “You think type advantage will give you a leg up against me?” he asked. “That’s little baby thinking.”</p><p>“Our heart burns in time with the heart of Wela Volcano!” declared Kiawe. “We won’t be losing to the likes of you!”</p><p>Lt Surge waved a dismissive hand. Ash wondered how much of his rough, kind of awful demeanor was real. When he first fought Lt Surge, Ash had thought he was just like that, kind of horrible and an opponent he would only feel good beating. And he still thought that, sort of. Even if how mean and unfeeling he was <em>was</em> an act, you still had to be kinda mean and unfeeling in the first place to think that was the best way to be a gym leader. </p><p>So Ash still didn’t really like him (even if he did respect him a little more than Pikachu did), but he was finding it really interesting to watch the battle and notice all the gym leader things Lt Surge did, that he’d totally missed when he was the one doing the gym battles. He’d been doing that kind of watching for all of Kiawe’s gym battles so far, and it was super cool. He was learning so much! </p><p>“Numel!” called Kiawe. It turned its head to look at him, which probably wasn’t great because of Raichu probably being fast enough to get in a surprise attack like that, but Lt Surge didn’t call for one. “Lava Plume! Let’s dry out this battlefield!”</p><p>“Numel!” agreed Numel, and shot out one of its beautiful orange-red Lava Plumes that Ash always thought would look really neat in a contest appeal. Fire washed across the floor of the gym so that Raichu had to jump to dodge.</p><p>“Raichu,” said Lt Surge. “Get in there and use Mega Punch.”</p><p>“Rai!” said Raichu, and darted over. It was a lot faster than when Ash had last fought it, which was pretty neat! They’d obviously been working on their speed.</p><p>The Mega Punch hit, and Lt Surge immediately followed it with a Mega Kick, which knocked Numel over to its side. The volcano on its back spat out flames. </p><p>Raichu was going in for another Mega Punch, then, but Kiawe called, “Earth Power!” and Numel managed to smack its leg down and use Earth Power even though it was on the ground, catching Raichu’s foot in a glowing golden crack. </p><p>Which gave it enough time to struggle back to its feet. </p><p>“We’re just getting warmed up!” said Kiawe.</p><p>Raichu managed to get its foot out of the ground, limping a little. </p><p>“Magnitude!” said Kiawe.</p><p>Numel stamped. The ground shook a little. Raichu just barely managed to brace itself and Mega Kicked Numel again. </p><p>“Raichu! On top of it!”</p><p>Raichu jumped, and landed in the hollow between Numel’s hump and its neck. </p><p>Clever. Numel couldn’t hit it with ground-type moves if it wasn’t on the ground.</p><p>“Mega Kick!”</p><p>Raichu angled the Mega Kick directly at Numel’s neck, and Ash winced as Numel staggered.</p><p>It was clever. And it was also a mistake, that Ash thought Lt Surge might be making on purpose. </p><p>Kiawe set his stance. “Like the magma bubbling deep in the heart of Wela Volcano!” he announced, and made the fire-type z-move pose. Lt Surge blinked a little. “Become a raging fire and <em>burn!</em> Numel, use Inferno Overdrive!”</p><p>Fire poured out of Numel’s hump, spilling and flickering over Numel and Raichu and the whole battlefield until Raichu tipped limply off its side and fell to the ground. </p><p>Numel was breathing hard by the time the flames cleared. </p><p>But Raichu was struggling to its feet, not quite done.</p><p>“Magnitude!” said Kiawe.</p><p>Numel stamped.</p><p>Raichu fell over again, this time for good.</p><p>“Raichu is unable to battle!” said the judge. “The victory goes to Numel and Kiawe!”</p><p>“Numel, amazing!” said Kiawe. He ran out of his box to hug it. “Your first gym battle, and you won! Thank you!”</p><p>Ash jumped out of the stands with Litten on his shoulder to congratulate them all, as Lt Surge grabbed his badge from the judge and walked over to present it.</p><p>“A display of strength and power worthy of the Thunder Badge,” said Lt Surge, without preamble. </p><p>Kiawe took the badge from his hand and stared at it, and then showed Numel and Litten and Marowak and Ash.</p><p>“Kiawe, that was so cool!” said Ash. “Turtonator and Numel were so cool!”</p><p>“They were, weren’t they?” said Kiawe. He put his hand on Numel’s head. “And we’ll just keep winning!”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>gratuitous karen cameo, to fill in the ranks of indigo plateau elite four members ash has met if nothing else. also because i think shes neat</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Myrtle Town</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>They left Vermilion City that same day as Kiawe’s victory, because Ash wanted to get to his contest in Myrtle Town in time for registration and Kiawe didn’t want to be in Vermilion City, or around Lt Surge, any longer than he had to.</p>
<p>They were three days out towards Myrtle Town, and probably also three days lost towards Myrtle Town, when Pikachu heard something, which got Ash’s attention, which got Kiawe’s and the rest of the pokemon’s attention when he started running in the direction of whatever he was hearing and shouting for them to <em>hurry up, Pikachu heard something! </em></p>
<p>Kiawe hurried up, because getting lost together was at least more tolerable than getting lost alone, and he caught up with Ash in a little flowered clearing. There was someone there, irritated and about their age, wearing all black and trying to step in the middle of an argument between two bug pokemon Kiawe didn’t recognize. </p>
<p>“Hi!” said Ash. “I’m Ash, and this is my parter Pikachu, and this is Incineroar, and this is Melmetal and this is Lycanroc!”</p>
<p>Kiawe shared a glance with Marowak and then stepped up next to him. “I’m Kiawe,” he said. “This is Marowak, and that’s Litten.”</p>
<p>The stranger let out a long breath through pursed lips and then looked up at them and grinned. “I’m Iyar!” they said. They gestured at the much more agitated one of the pair of bug pokemon, and then at the one floating serenely but still managing to give off a sense of extreme displeasure. “That’s Ninjask and Shedinja. Sorry about them, by the way, normally they <em>get along.”</em></p>
<p>“Jask,” said Ninjask.</p>
<p>Shedinja didn’t say anything or move but still managed to give off a sense of deep irritation.</p>
<p>“It’s nice to meet you all!” said Ash. Pikachu waved from his shoulder. “What’re they arguing about? Maybe we can help?”</p>
<p>“That’s what I’ve been trying to figure out,” said Iyar. They dragged a hand over their face and then sat down in the flowers. “They’ve always been close — same nincada, you know — so I really don’t know what’s happened to change that.”</p>
<p>“Same nincada?” asked Kiawe.</p>
<p>“Oh, you don’t know?” said Iyar. They tilted their head. “When a nincada evolves into ninjask, which is a bug and flying type, it also leaves behind a shedinja, a bug and ghost type. It’s pretty cool! So these two,” they gestured at the two feuding bug-types, “were the same nincada once!”</p>
<p>“Huh,” said Kiawe. </p>
<p>“Like the opposite of all the meltan coming together to help Melmetal evolve!” said Ash.</p>
<p>“I wouldn’t know that one,” said Iyar. </p>
<p>Litten wandered over to paw at Shedinja. Shedinja shot directly upwards, obviously panicked even though its expression didn’t change.</p>
<p>“Ah, sorry,” said Iyar, reaching down to scratch Litten apologetically. “The other interesting thing about Shedinja is that it can only be hurt by types it’s weak to, but even the smallest attack from them will knock it out instantly. It was probably afraid of you, Litten!”</p>
<p>“So cool!” said Ash. “Shedinja, that’s awesome! I’d love to battle you!” Ninjask buzzed in front of Shedinja and all around it, in a huff. Ash laughed. “You too, Ninjask!”</p>
<p>“Jask,” said Ninjask, and then decided to hover right in front of Shedinja’s face.</p>
<p>Kiawe thought the problem was obvious. “Ninjask is jealous of Shedinja,” he announced.</p>
<p>Everyone turned to look at him. </p>
<p>“You think so?” Iyar put their hands over their mouth. “Oh no…”</p>
<p>“Jask jask jask jask,” proclaimed Ninjask.</p>
<p>Shedinja didn’t say anything or move but still managed to give off a sense of deep irritation.</p>
<p>“D’you know how it could have started?” asked Ash. “Ninjask, you wanna tell us?”</p>
<p>“Jask, ja—”</p>
<p>A net dropped down over the two bug pokemon. It reeled back up, with Ninjask panicked in its clutches and Shedinja silently phasing right through it as it moved.</p>
<p>“Ninjask!” shouted Iyar. “What’s happening?”</p>
<p>Kiawe followed the net back up to its source, which was a meowth balloon.</p>
<p>“Team Rocket!” shouted Ash and Kiawe.</p>
<p>“Who?” said Iyar.</p>
<p>“Prepare for trouble!” announced Jessie.</p>
<p>“And make it double!” added James.</p>
<p>“An evil as old as the galaxy!” continued Jessie. Meowth put his face in his paws, but didn’t comment. Jessie fist-pumped.</p>
<p>“Sent here to fulfill our destiny!” James glanced sideways at Meowth.</p>
<p>“Plus, there’s me!” contributed Meowth, with recovered enthusiasm.</p>
<p>“To denounce the evils of truth and love!”</p>
<p>“To extend our reach to the stars above!”</p>
<p>“Jessie!”</p>
<p>“And James!”</p>
<p>“And Meowth are the names!”</p>
<p>Oh, good, they were done.</p>
<p>“Anywhere there’s peace in the universe…” said Jessie, because apparently they were not done.</p>
<p>“Team Rocket,” continued James.</p>
<p>“Will be there…” continued Meowth.</p>
<p>“To make everything worse!” they all shouted.</p>
<p>“Wobbuffet!” added Wobbuffet.</p>
<p>“Still not the motto we agreed on,” said Meowth. “But at least this one’s thematically appropriate, I guess.”</p>
<p>“They’re bad and really annoying people who steal other people’s pokemon,” explained Ash.</p>
<p>Iyar was only sort of listening. “Give back Ninjask!” they shouted, running after the balloon. “That’s my partner and my friend!”</p>
<p>“When we heard about Shedinja’s abilities,” announced Jessie, spreading her arms wide. “Our hearts became, as one, at ease.”</p>
<p>“A pokemon immune to Pikachu? No way were we missing that opportunity to—”</p>
<p>“Guys!” said Meowth. “Jessie! James! Problem!”</p>
<p>“What is it <em>now?”</em> said Jessie. </p>
<p>“Look down! We got the dud!”</p>
<p>As one, they looked down and spotted Ninjask struggling in the net, panicked, and Shedinja floating by Iyar’s head. </p>
<p>“Ninjask is <em>not</em> a dud!” said Iyar. “You’re all horrible! Give it back!”</p>
<p>James rested his chin on the side of the balloon. “Maybe if <em>you</em> give <em>us</em> that shedinja in return.”</p>
<p>“No way!” said Iyar.</p>
<p>“Deal’s off then!” said Jessie. She tossed a pokeball. “Gourgeist, get that shedinja for me with Shadow Ball!”</p>
<p>“Protect!” shouted Iyar. The Shadow Ball bounced off the Protect bubble and hit a tree.</p>
<p>“Pikachu,” started Ash.</p>
<p>“No, wait,” said Iyar. Then they started shouting again. “Okay, Team Rocket, I’ll accept your trade!” </p>
<p>Kiawe looked at them. No way…</p>
<p>“Shedinja, Ally Switch!” Shedinja flickered once. And then Ninjask was in its place, buzzing in panic. Iyar tackled it in a hug. “I’m so glad you’re alright! I’m so glad you’re alright!”</p>
<p>“Jask jask,” buzzed Ninjask.</p>
<p>“Iyar?” said Kiawe. He pointed at the balloon, where Team Rocket were celebrating as they slowly floated away. “Don’t you care about your shedinja?”</p>
<p>Iyar gasped. “Of course I do!” They glanced up. “Oh, no! Ninjask, I know you were fighting earlier, but are you okay with helping Shedinja now?”</p>
<p>“Jask,” said Ninjask. </p>
<p>Kiawe wanted to help, but his team were all fire-types. Shedinja would get caught in the crossfire. Maybe Ash? But Ash was staring at the balloon intently, Pikachu still on his arm.</p>
<p>And then Kiawe looked up again, and squinted, and realized the net had left Shedinja behind as Team Rocket got away.</p>
<p>“Ally Switch!” shouted Iyar again. Ninjask flickered, and was replaced by calm Shedinja. “Ninjask, get back down here!”</p>
<p>Ninjask, Kiawe learned in that moment, was very, very fast. Maybe even fast enough to keep up with Pikachu. In a second, it was back with Iyar, buzzing around Shedinja with frantic energy.</p>
<p>“That’s <em>cheap!”</em> said Meowth, indignant. “James, you suggested that net, this is your fault!” </p>
<p>“Well, I’m sorry we didn’t have any nets ready-made for catching ghost bugs!” retorted James. “I was working with the resources I had access to!”</p>
<p>“Don’t forget, Twerp!” added Jessie. “Myrtle Town’s <em>east</em> from here!”</p>
<p>“I knew that!” said Ash, even though they’d been going south for the past two days. “Pikachu, Thunderbolt!”</p>
<p>Team Rocket blasted off.</p>
<p>“Myrtle Town!” said Iyar. They were holding Shedinja and Ninjask in their arms, telling them about how they were both equal parts of their team and they worked best when they weren’t fighting. “Are you headed to the contest there?”</p>
<p>“Yeah!” said Ash. He threw a fist in the air. “Iyar, are you a coordinator too?”</p>
<p>Iyar scratched their head. “No,” they admitted, “it’s more complicated than that.”</p>
<p>It turned out Iyar was originally from a family who ran a small theatre in Lavender Town, where they didn’t have a contest hall — “for <em>some</em> reason” — and had only started watching contests a few years back. They’d fallen in love immediately, but also gotten progressively more and more annoyed that apparently the Pokemon Activities Committee had never even <em>talked</em> to a lighting designer, so they’d eventually set out on their journey with a goal of talking the Pokemon Activities Committee into letting them design lights for their contests. They had so many ideas!</p>
<p>Kiawe stopped paying attention about then, because he was all for enthusiasm but couldn’t follow all this talk about lighting and cues and washes — and Ash looked kind of overwhelmed too, but apparently wasn’t deterred by it — and started wondering about his next gym battle. They’d looked up Myrtle Town on a pokemon center map, and apparently Celadon City was on the other side of it, and there was apparently a grass-type gym there. A battle! He glanced at Marowak, who was chasing Ninjask around. They’d have to train really hard! </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Team Rocket arrived in Myrtle Town in <em>style</em>. Jessie — er, Jessamara — hopped out of the balloon and slid down a rope right outside the pokemon center, while James and Meowth and Wobbuffet tossed confetti down over her. </p>
<p>“Hello!” she said. “I, Jessamara, Queen of Contests, am here!”</p>
<p>“Great!” said the Twerp, who was apparently also here. “Can you stop blocking the door so we can get in?”</p>
<p>“Pika!”</p>
<p>Jessie sniffed, crossed her arms, and blocked the door more.</p>
<p>The Twerp glanced at the Fire Twerp and that Twerpling with the horrible shedinja and ninjask. Had he <em>really</em> picked up another twerpish traveling companion? Ugh.</p>
<p>“Fine,” said the Twerp, “guess we’ll go find Lilian at that contest hall!” He glanced at the Bug Twerpling. “You wanted to talk to her, right?”</p>
<p>“Yep!” said the Bug Twerpling. </p>
<p>They wandered off.</p>
<p>Jessie tailed them, because she didn’t actually know where the contest hall was. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Lilian was two days early to Myrtle Town, which was a really nice breather. Her schedule was busy busy busy all the time, which she <em>loved</em>, but more often than not she hardly even got a chance to explore a city before she was off to the next contest.</p>
<p>Myrtle Town was a charming little town, too. Their contest hall was an old theatre that they repurposed for their one yearly contest, and Lilian had just gotten out of her annual meeting with the theatre’s owner, in which he ran down the exact same list of warnings he did every year about how the battle round better not damage the building. That over with, she was leaving to head to the local sinnohan restaurant for some lunch when three kids nearly ran into her at the theatre door.</p>
<p>“Lilian!” said one Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town, Champion of Alola. He was one of the more interesting new coordinators this year. She’d recognized him, very faintly, when he first registered for a contest in Viridian City, and had looked him up that night in her hotel, which had had her up two hours later than she’d meant to be fact-checking the outlandish news articles linked from his paltry (but very real) Bulbapedia page.</p>
<p>She’d eventually figured out where she knew him from — he was associated with May of Petalburg, and had apparently traveled with her while she was in Kanto, so Lilian would have met him then — but by that point she was fascinated by him on his own merits. </p>
<p>It wasn’t often that League trainers took on the contest circuit: it was generally considered to be weaker battling for trainers who couldn’t cut it in the League conferences. Which was of course complete nonsense, because coordinating required — Lilian would argue — <em>more</em> skill than a traditional battle. But here was Ash Ketchum, Champion of a new League nobody had ever heard of, competing in an entirely different region’s contest circuit instead of doing publicity for his League, without even boasting about his title. It was, to say the least, unusual. At least Wallace of Hoenn generally advertised the fact that he was a Champion when the title didn’t belong to Steven Stone.</p>
<p>So she’d watched Ash of Pallet Town with interest. His first contest, back in Viridian City, hadn’t been promising although his appeal was decent, and he’d been handed the defeat at a more experienced coordinator’s hands that she’d expected in Cerulean City, but his showing in Rosemary Town had been a notable improvement even though it had ended in a loss. She <em>was</em> excited to see how this contest would go, now that he was here. Very interesting indeed.</p>
<p>“Lilian!” repeated Ash of Pallet Town. He gestured at one of the kids next to him, the one wearing a shirt. “This is Iyar, they wanted to talk to you! Iyar, this is Lilian!”</p>
<p>Lilian nodded. “It’s nice to meet you, Iyar. What’s the issue?”</p>
<p>“Glad to meet you too, Lilian!” Iyar clapped their hands together. “I wanted to talk about lighting?”</p>
<p>Lilian tilted her head to the side. “What about it?”</p>
<p>Ash of Pallet Town slipped past her, dragging his other friend into the theatre. Lilian should probably have stopped him, but whatever. He was a responsible young man, probably. If he caused any trouble the owner would throw him out.</p>
<p>“See,” said Iyar. They tugged at the collar of their shirt. Everything they wore was black, so they looked like a gloomy little raincloud. “I was wondering if you’d let me design the lights for this contest!”</p>
<p>Lilian blinked. Lights for contests barely needed designing; you just threw up a wash and left the audience lights on and didn’t bother otherwise. The focus was on the pokemon, after all. Plus, in locations that weren’t dedicated contest halls — and even in locations that were, if they had a dedicated staff —, Lilian and her employers were usually banned from any and all interaction with the technical equipment. </p>
<p>“I’m afraid we’ve got that covered,” she said.</p>
<p>“No, you don’t!” objected Iyar. “You don’t even turn off the house lights! I love contests, but they could be so much more amazing to watch if you let me put a little work into the lighting. Imagine if there was someone at the light board, and the coordinators got to talk to them about their lighting needs for their appeals, and we could pull a blackout between battle rounds…” Iyar smiled dreamily, and then made a face. “At least let me turn off the house lights!”</p>
<p>Lilian stared at them for a little longer. They really were into this, weren’t they? And there was apparently at least a <em>modicum</em> of thought put into the whole thing. </p>
<p>“You know what?” she said. “Sure. I’ll introduce you to the owner of this theatre. If he lets you into the tech booth, we’ll give your ideas a try.”</p>
<p>“Awesome! Thanks so much!”</p>
<p>Lilian sighed. There went her two days of relaxation.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Clementine arrived in Myrtle Town just in time, and at the registration desk even more just in time. She was excited! Her last contest, she’d managed to win her third ribbon, so hopefully she could turn that into a proper winning streak! </p>
<p>This whole journey was so exciting!</p>
<p>She handed the receptionist her contest pass, trying to catch her breath, and then glanced at the kid about her age standing next to the receptionist.</p>
<p>“Hi!” said the kid. “I’m Iyar, I’m on lights for this contest! Do you have any specific lighting needs for your appeal?”</p>
<p>Clementine stared at them. Blinked a little. Glanced at Cherubi and Bounsweet, who didn’t have any input to give because they were playing “who can spin the longest” in the middle of the floor. What did <em>lighting needs</em> even mean? </p>
<p>“I don’t think so?” she said. </p>
<p>“Don’t worry about it, then!” said the kid, scribbling something down in a notebook. “But let me know if you think of anything!”</p>
<p>“Got it!” said Clementine, even though she did not get it at all.</p>
<p>She slipped backstage just ahead of the closing door, Cherubi and Bounsweet clinging to her shoulders, and took in the competitors. Most of them, she didn’t recognize. There was a tall lady in red sequined dress, and some people with some ralts, and a girl Clementine thought she knew from some other contest hall with a big purple ribbon in her hair, and a kid talking seriously with a litwick, and—</p>
<p>Oh no. That was Ash.</p>
<p>He was talking with a big silver pokemon Clementine had never seen before, and Clementine slipped to the other side of the room and hoped he hadn’t seen her. Not that she didn’t want to talk to him. She’d been trying to figure out what to say if she saw him again for <em>weeks</em>. But she hadn’t thought she’d see him here, or now, or without any time to decide what conversation script she wanted to go with.</p>
<p>The stage monitors flickered on, and Clementine glanced over at them. She wasn’t ignoring Ash. She wasn’t. Also, whoa, the lights were off on the stage, it looked like. As she watched, the audience lights faded out and the stage lights came slowly on, but only in the middle of the stage, where Lilian was standing.</p>
<p>Lilian introduced the contest, and the judges, and then opened the event with her usual shout of “Lets! Get! Busy!”</p>
<p>The receptionist came in and taped the appeals order on the wall for them all, so Clementine wandered over and stared at it. </p>
<p>Oh, Beast of the <em>Sea</em>, Ash was right after her. </p>
<p>That wasn’t great. That was really not great. Not only would she have to avoid him in the backstage until she figured out what she wanted to say, she’d also have to make sure not to run into him in the wings. Luckily — she glanced over to check — he was very absorbed in his conversation in a way that involved lots of dramatic hand gestures, so she skittered to a corner and tried to calm down for her appeal.</p>
<p>Bounsweet, helpfully, used Sweet Scent. Cherubi, less helpfully, draped itself around her neck like a scarf.</p>
<p>“Okay, you two,” she said. “It’s Bounsweet’s appeal this time, remember?”</p>
<p>“Sweet!</p>
<p>“Rubi…”</p>
<p>“C’mon, Cherubi, you know your next appeal isn’t ready yet.”</p>
<p>“Rub.”</p>
<p>“You’ll get your chance soon enough! Bounsweet, you ready?”</p>
<p>“Sweet sweet sweet!” As punctuation, Bounsweet shot out another flare of Sweet Scent. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught Ash panicking and reaching for a non-existent backpack, at which point he relaxed. </p>
<p>Then he looked up and saw her so she fixed her gaze on the little TV feed of the stage. The coordinator with the purple ribbon in her hair was encouraging her abra in a rapid series of Teleports that flashed it around the room in an interesting pattern, and then the lady in the red sequin dress used a wobbuffet to make a super creative series of light effects with Counter, Mirror Coat, and the actual lights changing. That must have been what Iyar meant about lighting needs, so cool! So pretty!</p>
<p>And then, just as Ash seemed to make up his mind and make his way over to try to talk to her, she was up next, so she returned Bounsweet and Cherubi and speedwalked out the door. </p>
<p>Her appeal went well. </p>
<p>Bounsweet used Sweet Scent in irregular spurts, to make an amorphous sort of rose shape in the air, and then scattered it into the audience with Rapid Spin, and while they were distracted by the smell of it used Bounce, sending it all the way up to the stage lights and giving Bounsweet a chance to aim a Dazzling Gleam at the ground so that it came back down in a shower of sparkles.</p>
<p>That one had been hard to practice! The rose shape never came out right when they were outside, so Clementine had been sighing in relief that this contest was inside, and it worked perfectly! And Bounsweet was so cute!</p>
<p>It was a bit weird not being able to see the audience, but she got used to it pretty fast. She wasn’t sure she <em>liked</em> it, because part of the fun was watching how enchanted their faces were, but she got used to it, and there was a kind of clarity in only being able to hear them and see silhouettes. </p>
<p>But then she left the stage, and there, walking towards her as she left the wings, was Ash.</p>
<p>They both stopped moving.</p>
<p>“Clementine,” he said. </p>
<p>“Ash,” she said. </p>
<p>They blinked at each other.</p>
<p>“I’m really really sorry!” they said at the same time.</p>
<p>Clementine blinked at him some more. He blinked back at her some more.</p>
<p>Then Lilian said his name and Clementine shoved him towards the stage. </p>
<p>“Good luck on your appeal!” she said, and skittered backstage to watch it.</p>
<p>He was using that big metallic pokemon he’d been talking to earlier, apparently it was called Melmetal, and it appeared in a ribbon of eleseals, clunking down on stage. </p>
<p>He flung out a hand and called for something called Double Iron Bash, which apparently involved Melmetal spinning super super fast, and then while it was doing that he said, “Use Thunderbolt!”</p>
<p>Thunderbolt crackled out but only a little, to surround it, and the lights dimmed. So <em>he’d</em> asked for lighting needs too! </p>
<p>In the darkness of the stage, spinning blurry-fast, Thunderbolt sparking and lighting it at weird angles, Melmetal looked like a thundercloud come to life, sparkling and yellow-silver and jagged. It was a <em>good</em> appeal, and Clementine was pretty sure it looked even better from the audience, because the little TV feed wasn’t doing great in the low light.</p>
<p>And then Melmetal swung its arms and stopped spinning, and the Thunderbolt faded, and the lights came back up, and Ash bowed. </p>
<p>“That looked great!” she said, when he came back in. </p>
<p>He glanced at her, and his face lit up. “Clementine!” he said. “Yours looked super amazing too!” </p>
<p>“Thanks!” she said. And then she bit her lip. “Um.”</p>
<p>“Um,” he said back. He looked down. “I really am sorry about our last battle. I hadn’t realized what a contest battle was like yet, so I treated it like a League battle like I’m used to, when I know you wanted a proper contest battle.”</p>
<p>Oh, he was a League battler? That explained <em>so</em> much. The League was really not her thing, no wonder they’d clashed so much! </p>
<p>“I mean, that makes sense,” she said. Bounsweet bounced up to sit on his head, and he reached up to touch it and smiled a little. “I’m also sorry. You said you were new to contests, so I was kind of expecting an easy win, and I got a bit upset when you had the easy win instead!” She tangled her fingers together. “That was kinda terrible of me, wasn’t it! I mean, I’m not all that experienced either, and I especially wasn’t then!”</p>
<p>“More experienced than me,” said Ash, shrugging. He sat down on one of the chairs littered around the room. “I had a lot to learn about contest battles then. I still do!” Clementine pulled up a chair to sit down too, and he leaned forward on his elbows. “Hey, Clementine, d’you have any tips?”</p>
<p>She shrugged. “I dunno, you kinda seem like you know what you’re doing now!”</p>
<p>“Yeah, but I can always learn more!” He threw his hands up. “I’m gonna be Top Coordinator for sure! But I gotta learn a lot more to get there!”</p>
<p>“You’re gonna be Top Coordinator?” asked Clementine. “I think that’s where you’re wrong! I think I’ll be winning the Ribbon Cup!” </p>
<p>They grinned at each other. </p>
<p>Then Clementine frowned a little and tangled her hands a little. “I could probably learn a lot from you, too,” she admitted. “I’ve been thinking a bunch about it since you beat me last time, and it’s true that I’m not that great at actually battling.”</p>
<p>“Huh? I thought your battles were pretty great!” said Ash. He touched Bounsweet, on his head. “You used Bounsweet’s natural abilities super well. You’re amazing at contest battles!”</p>
<p>“Thanks,” said Clementine, “but just defending doesn’t always give you a win, you know? We’d probably do better in those kalosian showcases than in contests, honestly.”</p>
<p>“Aw, don’t say that!” said Ash, flicking a hand. “I’m better in League battles than in contests, but that just means I’ve got a bunch to learn!” He threw a fist in the air. “Yeah! And we’ll all learn together! If that’s alright with you, Clementine?”</p>
<p>His enthusiasm was irrepressible. “Yeah!” she said, and grinned at him again. “But I’ll beat you this time for sure!”</p>
<p>“Only one way to find out!” he said. “We’re totally both gonna make it into the battle round, and we’ll have the most amazing battle Myrtle Town has ever seen!”</p>
<p>“Yeah, for sure!” she agreed. “And afterwards, we’ll compare notes and talk about what could have gone better?”</p>
<p>“Sounds great!”</p>
<p>They bumped their elbows together, to make it a promise, and Clementine was so giddy with joy and relief she felt like she could fly.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>They both made it into the battle round. So did the lady in the red sequin dress, who Ash had told her was the same Jessamara who’d been shouting at the receptionist back in Viridian City, and so did the coordinator with the purple ribbon. </p>
<p>She was up against the coordinator with the purple ribbon first, who Lilian called Umi and who sent out a pokemon Clementine had only ever heard of before, a big anchor draped in seaweed she called Dhelmise. Didn’t they live in shipwrecks? Was Umi a diver? Maybe her abra helped her teleport back to the surface if she was almost out of air? </p>
<p>Dhelmise interrupted her train of thought by crashing to the ground with a roar like crashing waves, and Clementine thought for a second and then shouted, “Tropius, spotlight’s on you!”</p>
<p>Tropius emerged, blinking away flora seals, and glanced around in confusion at the bright lights for a bit before finally looking down and noticing Dhelmise. </p>
<p>Clementine sighed and then called for Growth, and the battle proceeded.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Ash watched Clementine’s battle on the TV feed, trying to contain his excitement. Tropius, huh! He hadn’t realized she had one, that was so cool! It was <em>so big.</em></p>
<p>Her battle style was interesting to watch, now that he was looking at it from a “we’re going to give each other advice later” kind of perspective. It was true that she was super defensive, and super pretty and flashy and contesty with her defense, but it wasn’t that she <em>didn’t</em> have power. Her Tropius was super powerful! Its Air Slash was amazing! But she just didn’t know what to <em>do</em> with that power. </p>
<p>Ash couldn’t <em>wait</em> for their battle.</p>
<p>She beat Umi on points, eventually, and then Ash was up. This was a smaller contest, like the one in Rosemary Town, so there were only four coordinators in the battle round of the twenty three who’d done appeals. Most of the coordinators who got eliminated in the appeals round had left the backstage after that, too, to leave or go watch from the audience, so for all of Clementine’s battle with Umi he’d tried to ignore Jessamara glaring at him from the corner of the room. </p>
<p>He couldn’t wait to battle her either! But it would be super terrible if they started battling here instead of on stage, so he waited until Clementine and Umi came back from their battle and he had a chance to congratulate Clementine on her win before he looked back at Jessamara and said, “Let’s go! I’ll win this time!”</p>
<p>“Yeah, in your <em>dreams</em>,” she said back, and they went to go get on stage. </p>
<p>Iyar’s lighting for the battle round was just the plain lights they’d called a wash, because they said that if they did anything fancier the pokemon would get super distracted from having the lights change, and that wasn’t what the battle round was about. But they still did the thing where they pulled the lights all the way to dark while Ash and Jessamara got in their places, and then made them bright again when they were set.</p>
<p>Ash thought. Jessamara’d used Dustox last contest, which obviously wasn’t possible anymore. And she’d used Wobbuffet in the appeals round, which was pretty creative! But she probably wouldn’t use it again. Which still left a few options, but… </p>
<p>Eh, whatever, he’d find out soon! Half the fun was adapting on the spot!</p>
<p>“And now, for the second battle in our battle round, Ash of Pallet Town versus Jessamara!” shouted Lilian into her little microphone headset. “Let’s! Get! Busy!”</p>
<p>“Torterra, let’s give them a show!” said Ash. </p>
<p>Torterra burst from its pokeball in a shower of flora seals and hit the ground. “Terra.”</p>
<p>Jessamara threw her head back dramatically and tossed her own pokeball. “Gourgeist, we’re the stars!”</p>
<p>“Timer starts… Now!”</p>
<p>“Gourgeist, use Shadow Ball!”</p>
<p>Gourgeist’s Shadow Ball formed, more brilliantly purple than usual, and flew straight at Torterra.</p>
<p>“Leaf Storm!” called Ash. Torterra pulled up a Leaf Storm, caught the Shadow Ball, and sent it right back.</p>
<p>“Dodge!” Gourgeist and Jessamara both ducked, and out of the corner of his eye, Ash saw Lilian send out her espeon to catch the Shadow Ball with Protect before it hit the wall. </p>
<p>Jessamara smiled. “Now that the traditional introductions are over,” she announced. “We’re going on the offensive. Gourgeist, use Leech Seed!”</p>
<p>Roots grew around Torterra in a fancy swirl pattern, holding it in place. That was fine. Torterra’s battle style didn’t have much moving in it. The roots also started sucking out energy, which was less fine. Torterra needed that!</p>
<p>“Torterra, you doing alright?” he called.</p>
<p>“Torterra,” said Torterra. The roots sucked out a bit more energy, but Torterra stayed strong. </p>
<p>They had to break those… “Torterra, Rock Climb!” </p>
<p>“Oh no you don’t!” called Jessamara, as Torterra started summoning its rock pillar out of the stage. “Leech Seed again! Break up those rocks!”</p>
<p>Gourgeist pulled up another round of roots, which crumbled Torterra’s rock pillar as soon as it pulled itself out of the ground. Ash’s points dipped again. </p>
<p>“Never mind, then!” said Ash. Torterra was good at staying strong and steady, and it had ways to recover. “We can work around them! Torterra, Energy Ball! And eat it!”</p>
<p>Torterra made a glowing-green energy ball near its mouth and bit down hard. Almost immediately, its tree started glowing instead, each individual leaf outlined in green. </p>
<p>“Leaf Storm!” said Ash, and the Leaf Storm leaves from off its tree were glowing too. </p>
<p>His points evened with Jessamara’s even before the attack hit, which was good, because Jessamara called up another Leech Seed root and blocked some of it. </p>
<p>“Keep up that Leaf Storm!” said Ash. “And heal with Synthesis!”</p>
<p>Torterra, surrounded by whirling leaves, glowed green.</p>
<p>Ash thought the effect was pretty nice, and so did the judges.</p>
<p>Not Jessamara, though, because she stamped her foot and then called for a barrage of Shadow Balls. Torterra caught most of them in its whirling Leaf Storm, and the one or two that got through barely had any effect. Jessamara’s points dipped more.</p>
<p>“No way!” she shouted.</p>
<p>And then the timer went off.</p>
<p>“And it looks like Ash of Pallet Town wins this one with a strong defense by his torterra!” announced Lilian. </p>
<p>Ash shook Jessamara’s hand, and then she turned away and stalked off. “This isn’t over, Twerp.”</p>
<p>Ash waved at her, and then went to go find Clementine. He got to battle with her in the final round!</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Clementine stood across from Ash on the contest stage and firmed her stance. No way was she losing! </p>
<p>He grinned at her from the other side of the stage, and reached for Torterra’s pokeball.</p>
<p>The timer started.</p>
<p>“Tropius, spotlight’s on you!”</p>
<p>“Torterra, let’s give them a show!”</p>
<p>They landed, enveloped by the same flora seals, and Clementine waited for him to take first move. She had type advantage, true, but she’d watched his battle with Torterra earlier and he battled super defensively with it, so there wasn’t a guarantee she’d even be able to land a hit.</p>
<p>Luckily, he didn’t seem to mind the opening she gave him. “Torterra, Energy Ball!”</p>
<p>“Air Slash!” called Clementine, and Tropius’s Air Slash cut the Energy Ball into little sparkles. “Awesome, Tropius!”</p>
<p>“So much power!” said Ash. “Awesome!”</p>
<p>“Air Slash again!” said Clementine. The Air Slash cut towards Torterra, making furrows in the air and scattering the sparkles left over from the Energy Ball. </p>
<p>Torterra took the hit, dipping Ash’s points down below hers, but he shouted for a Synthesis and Torterra glowed all over, sparkling under the lights.</p>
<p>“Tropius, Growth!” Tropius used Growth, growing an illusory extra few feet and sparkling green. </p>
<p>The judges called it even.</p>
<p>“Torterra, we’ve gotta go on the offense!” said Ash. He flung out an arm. “Use Energy Ball!”</p>
<p>“Tropius, Fly!” Tropius flapped its leaves and flew up out of the way of the Energy Ball. They’d worked a lot on its flight, so that it looked effortless and elegant despite how heavy Tropius was, and the judges cut Ash’s points so apparently it worked. If they could land a flying-type hit from this height… </p>
<p>But Ash smiled. “Torterra, get up there with Rock Climb!”</p>
<p>Torterra pulled a pillar of rock out of the wooden stage and charged up it, slamming into Tropius’s dive and knocking it to the ground. </p>
<p>“Tropius! You alright?”</p>
<p>“Trop…” grumbled Tropius, slowly getting up. Clementine winced. That was going to cost them <em>points</em>. She needed to stop underestimating Ash’s offense, even with a defensive pokemon like Torterra.</p>
<p>“Torterra, brace your descent with Leaf Storm!”</p>
<p>Torterra jumped off the Rock Climb pillar, showering leaves from its tree that came together in a sort of cushion underneath it. It still landed with a crash that Clementine was a little surprised the wooden stage survived, but not quite hard enough that Torterra took any damage. The leaves scattered into the air. </p>
<p>“Great! Now use Energy Ball!”</p>
<p>An Energy Ball streaked towards Tropius again. “Air Slash again!” shouted Clementine. What was he playing at? Using the same attack twice when he knew she had a counter for it would just lose him more points. </p>
<p>She got her answer when <em>another</em> Energy Ball fell out of the sky towards Tropius. </p>
<p>Tricked! </p>
<p>“Aim your Air Slash up!” she shouted. But she’d noticed too late, and the Energy Ball hit Tropius right on the head.</p>
<p>Tropius shook it off, pretty much unharmed between the Growth from earlier and its resistance to grass-types, but the damage to Clementine’s points was done.</p>
<p>“Yeah!” shouted Ash.</p>
<p>“Tropius, dazzle them with another Fly!”</p>
<p>Tropius flapped its leaves, lifting into the air— </p>
<p>And the timer went off. </p>
<p>She glanced at the scoreboard. As she’d thought, Ash had ended the battle with a decent lead. </p>
<p>Well! At least she’d lost to a friend.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>That evening, Clementine joined Ash and Kiawe for dinner. Ash introduced her to Kiawe, who complimented Bounsweet — “He’s from Alola!” said Ash — and the rest of their teams, including his partner Pikachu, who’d been watching from the stands for both of the contests they’d shared and so she hadn’t met yet. </p>
<p>Just as they were sitting down, that lighting person Iyar slipped into the pokemon center where they were sitting and joined them.</p>
<p>“You know each other?” said Clementine.</p>
<p>“We met on the way here!” said Ash. “Iyar did all the lights for today’s contest!”</p>
<p>Clementine nodded. “I saw them on my way in. I get what you mean by lighting needs now!”</p>
<p>Iyar puffed out a cheek. “Most of the coordinators didn’t, so I only got to do fun lights for a few people. Oh well.”</p>
<p>“Maybe next time?” said Clementine. “I know I’ll be thinking about it, so I’ll know what to ask for if I ever see you again!”</p>
<p>“Yeah! Me too!” said Ash, even though he <em>had</em> asked for lights.</p>
<p>“Thanks!” said Iyar. They threw their hands in the air. “And you will! Because I mostly came in here to tell you, guess what, Lilian liked my lights enough to ask me to come with her and do them for the next contest too! I’m not officially-<em>officially</em> hired or anything, but maybe I will be soon?”</p>
<p>“Whoa, that’s awesome!” said Ash. “Are you leaving now?”</p>
<p>“That’s great!” said Clementine. “I’ll definitely think of some light ideas for you then!”</p>
<p>“Congratulations,” said Kiawe, feeding a noodle to his litten. </p>
<p>“Thanks, everyone!” said Iyar. “Anyway, I came to say goodbye, ‘cause I am leaving now, there’s a contest in Pewter City tomorrow afternoon and Lilian told me to get my stuff as quick as possible so we can get there in time! So um, bye! Good luck with your ribbons and badges!”</p>
<p>“Good luck, Iyar!” they all said. “See you later!”</p>
<p>“Pika pikachu!”</p>
<p>Iyar dashed off, and they all stared at each other for a bit. </p>
<p>Then Clementine went back to her noodles. </p>
<p>“So! Our battle!” said Ash, who’d already finished his food somehow. “Kiawe, you were watching too, you should help out, we’re talking about what we both could work on!”</p>
<p>Kiawe nodded. </p>
<p>Clementine put more food in her mouth. She had a rival, and it was Ash, and he didn’t hold her actions against her, and they were going to work on their contest battling together. Today was <em>such</em> a good day!</p>
<p>“I think,” she started off, “that you can probably do something with Rock Climb to make it more flashy?”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>introducing: a harried theatre technician bit character, who is doing for me the one thing i have always wanted to do to contests, which is, turning off the house lights. i figured this fic was my one opportunity to enact the change i wish to see in the contest world! so here’s iyar</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Celadon City</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p><br/>Kiawe stretched. It was sunny out, warm and bright, and they’d wandered halfway through the afternoon into a tiny little town called Cornflower Village with a tiny little pokemon center whose Nurse Joy was raising a tiny little happiny. </p>
<p>After getting Nurse Joy to check over their pokemon, Kiawe had wandered out to the little battlefield to work with Litten on its Ember attack while Marowak, Turtonator, and Numel had a three-way spar around them (very perilous). Ash had run to the videophone instead, because he’d had some idea, so Kiawe didn’t really wait for him as Litten’s aim and power slowly improved. </p>
<p>Eventually Ash came tearing out of the pokemon center at a run, Pikachu on his shoulder, followed by Lycanroc and Incineroar, and threw three pokeballs in the air. </p>
<p>Krookodile and two pokemon Kiawe vaguely recognized emerged from them, neither of whom he’d realized Ash had. It was weirdly easy to forget that he hadn’t known Ash his whole life, even though Ash was constantly knowing everyone and being experienced and giving advice on things Kiawe would never have thought of. </p>
<p>“Kiawe!” said Ash. Turtonator and the rest stopped trying to set each other on fire. “Everyone! I’d like you all to meet Gliscor, Boldore, and Krookodile!”</p>
<p>“Krook,” said Krookodile, adjusting its sunglasses. It crossed its arms in Marowak’s direction. “Krook krook.”</p>
<p>Marowak shook its club back. “Maro maro maro!”</p>
<p>Ash grinned. “Hey, we can have a spar later, Krookodile. There’s a thing I want to work on with you all first!”</p>
<p>“Cor?” said Gliscor. It had wandered over and started shaking hands with a somewhat bemused Turtonator.</p>
<p>“Turto,” said Turtonator. </p>
<p>Boldore had wandered over to Numel, and Incineroar had knelt down to talk to Litten, apparently so that it didn’t feel left out.</p>
<p>“<em>Guys,</em>” complained Ash. His pokemon all turned to look at him. “You all know I’ve been doing contests, right?”</p>
<p>“Boldore,” agreed Boldore. Kiawe wondered how they’d learned. Did Professor Oak keep Ash’s pokemon up to date on his activities?</p>
<p>“Great!” said Ash. “So I was thinking, since Lycanroc <em>and</em> all you guys know Stone Edge, but you all use it super differently, cause there’s so many different types of Stone Edge I’ve seen, I figured we could come up with some contest moves for Lycanroc that use all those different types of Stone Edge, ‘cause you could teach it yours!”</p>
<p>“Lycan,” barked Lycanroc. </p>
<p>“Krook,” grumbled Krookodile, glancing over at Marowak. “Krookodile.”</p>
<p>Ash smiled at it. “And then we can spar, yeah, don’t worry Krookodile.”</p>
<p>“Krooko!”</p>
<p>“Boldore, Gliscor?”</p>
<p>They nodded. Pikachu hopped off Ash’s shoulder. “Pi pikachu pi!” it said, gesturing with a paw towards Litten and Incineroar. </p>
<p>“Yeah, go ahead!” said Ash. “Good luck, Litten, everyone! Everyone, let’s go over by the fence and figure this out!”</p>
<p>They wandered away. Kiawe’s team went back to their three-way Flamethrower battle, which was kind of taking place right on top of Kiawe’s head, so it was a good thing that he was sitting down. </p>
<p>“Lit!” said Litten, batting at one of Incineroar’s big paws. “Lit! Lit!”</p>
<p>Incineroar chomped its teeth into a Fire Fang, showing off. Litten’s eyes sparkled, and it bit down too, imitating Incineroar. </p>
<p>“Do you want to learn that, Litten?” asked Kiawe. </p>
<p>“Litten!” it said, and bit down again. </p>
<p>Well, another move could hardly <em>hurt.</em> And its Ember was looking excellent. </p>
<p>“Incineroar, let’s teach Litten!”</p>
<p>“Incineroar!” agreed Incineroar, and bit down with its biggest Fire Fang yet.</p>
<p>“Pi pikachu!” added Pikachu, holding a stick to practice on. Kiawe had no idea where it had got the stick, but Pikachu was helpful like that.</p>
<p>Then he sat back, feeling a little useless, as Incineroar explained the move in detail to Litten. The afternoon wore on with Incineroar acting as the main instructor, Pikachu helping out because Kiawe wasn’t sure there was anything it <em>didn’t</em> know how to teach, and Kiawe giving encouragement whenever Litten got frustrated and hoping the rest of his team didn’t set him on fire. It was a good afternoon. He was surrounded by pokemon, and the sun was warm, and he only missed Alola a little bit.</p>
<p>“Hey, Litten,” he said, as the sun started to set and Ash was finishing the Stone Edge choreography he’d been working on and talking to the other pokemon about those battles he’d promised them. “Want to be in my next gym battle?”</p>
<p>Litten’s face lit up. “Lit!”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Celadon City was… alright. It was still a city in Kanto, of course, so that was a point against it, but they at least knew how plants worked and a few more people had pokemon out than he usually saw in this region. That or Kiawe was getting desensitized to kantonian cities, which would be terrible. </p>
<p>Ash led him to the gym, less enthusiastic than normal. “They make perfume there,” he said, and made a face. “Gross. I don’t like it.” He made another face. “Can’t say that to the people in the gym though, they think it’s super rude!”</p>
<p>“It is,” said Kiawe, but Ash was busy making a third face, this time at Pikachu, and ignored him. </p>
<p>The receptionist stared at Litten and Marowak and Incineroar dubiously as they walked in, which Kiawe thought was also rude although it kind of made sense given the gym was full of all sorts of plants and Incineroar especially was a little bit on fire. </p>
<p>Then he breathed in, and nearly started crying. </p>
<p>The fragrance! The beauty! The warm humidity of the air!</p>
<p>He almost, <em>almost</em> felt like he was home again.</p>
<p>Ash tugged on his hand. He realized there were tears running down his cheeks, and swiped at them.</p>
<p>“Alola!” said Ash, to the receptionist. “I’m Ash, from Pallet Town, and this is Pikachu and Lycanroc and Incineroar and Rowlet!” He tugged on Kiawe’s hand again. Kiawe had been staring at an orchid that he was <em>sure</em> was from Alola, and reluctantly looked back at him and the receptionist instead. “And this is Kiawe, who wants a gym battle!”</p>
<p>“Alola,” said Kiawe, and then shut his mouth because every time he’d said that in Kanto he’d gotten a weird look exactly like the receptionist was giving him now. “Kiawe of Akala island.” He pointed, and then ran to grab Marowak before it decided knocking over a potted plant was a good idea. “These’re Marowak and Litten. Marowak, behave.”</p>
<p>“Maro!” said Marowak, so Kiawe didn’t put it down.</p>
<p>“A gym battle?” said the receptionist. She glared at Marowak a little and then stared at Ash a little more — probably recognizing him, like basically everyone in Kanto seemed to — and then stood up. “I’ll go let the gym leader know. Wait here.”</p>
<p>“Thank you!” said Kiawe. </p>
<p>Kiawe handed Marowak to Incineroar and asked it to please keep it out of trouble, to which Incineroar nodded and Marowak complained, and then went back to staring at that orchid. It was definitely alolan. He missed Alola. </p>
<p>Eventually the receptionist came back, at which point Kiawe had moved on to a plant that probably wasn’t alolan but had deep purple leaves that looked a bit like the leaves of one the flowers on Akala Island.</p>
<p>“Kiawe,” she said, politely, and he turned around reluctantly. “The gym leader is free and willing to battle.”</p>
<p>He jumped up. “Great! Litten, you ready?”</p>
<p>“Lit!” said Litten.</p>
<p>“Good luck,” said the receptionist. She tucked some hair back behind her ear. “Don’t underestimate Erika, or you’ll lose!”</p>
<p>“She’s really strong!” agreed Ash.</p>
<p>The receptionist nodded. “Oh, and I have to ask,” she added. “Would you be interested in purchasing some of our perfume?”</p>
<p>Kiawe looked at the orchid again. He blinked away tears, and said, “Yes, I would.”</p>
<p>“I’ll show your our selection once you’ve won your badge, then!” said the receptionist. She looked a lot more cheerful than when they’d walked in, and was hardly even glaring at Incineroar and Marowak anymore. “Consider it a victory present to yourself.”</p>
<p>Ash wrinkled his nose, but didn’t say anything, and let the receptionist lead them to the battlefield.</p>
<p>Gym Leader Erika was waiting for them in the battlefield room. She was fiddling with a sprinkler system for the plants along the side, but stopped her work and looked up when the receptionist opened the door.</p>
<p>“Kiawe of Akala Island to challenge you, ma’am,” said the receptionist. “And a guest.”</p>
<p>“Thank you, Kay. Would you get Julia to judge for us, please?” said Erika. Kay nodded and ducked away. “And welcome, challenger, to my gym—” Her eyes fixed on Ash. “Well, if it isn’t Ash Ketchum!”</p>
<p>Kiawe was getting more and more convinced by the day that Ash had met literally every single person of any import in the entire Kanto region.</p>
<p>“Hi, Erika!” said Ash. “I’m glad your gym looks all nice again!”</p>
<p>“My pokemon and the local trainers all helped rebuild after the fire, and many people even donated cuttings for the greenhouse,” she said back. “I quite like the result! But I would be happy surrounded by plants and grass-type pokemon no matter what the gym looked like.” </p>
<p>Ash nodded. “I know what you mean! As long as I’ve got my pokemon with me, I’m super happy!”</p>
<p>Erika nodded at him, and then turned to Kiawe. “And you look like a fire-type trainer, yes?” She didn’t wait for an answer. Kiawe nodded anyway. “I’ll be opening the roof, then, I think. We’ll both enjoy the sunlight.”</p>
<p>She walked over to the wall and hit a switch, and the great glass roof of the room slowly peeled itself back. Kiawe looked up and let sunlight hit his face. That would power up fire-type moves. Kind of daring of her, but then, she was a gym leader. </p>
<p>Kiawe said, “You had an alolan orchid in the lobby.”</p>
<p>Her face lit up. “Oh, you noticed?” She narrowed her eyes at him. “Right, Akala Island, you’re alolan! I actually have a fair selection of alolan plants here, if you’d like to peruse them after the gym battle?”</p>
<p>“You’d do that for me?” Kiawe was tearing up again. “Of course I want to see them! Of course, of course, of course!”</p>
<p>“Of course!” said Erika. “I’m always ready to show off my collection to anyone who properly appreciates plants. After our battle?”</p>
<p>Kiawe nodded, and stepped into one of the trainer’s boxes. “After I win!”</p>
<p>A woman burst through the door at run. “I’m not late, am I? I hope I’m not late, sorry Erika! Oh, the roof is open!”</p>
<p>“You’re not late, Julia,” said Erika. Julia visibly relaxed. “In fact, you’re right on time. If you’ll start us off?”</p>
<p>Ash had taken his team up to the bleachers to watch. Incineroar had apparently put Marowak down at some point, because it was standing grumpily next to Kiawe, tapping its bone on the ground. Litten jumped down from Kiawe’s arms to stand on his other side, excited and battle-ready. </p>
<p>Kiawe was regretting, a little, that he’d promised to let it in this gym battle. It was still so small. He didn’t want to see it hurt. He didn’t! But he didn’t want to break his promise, either. </p>
<p>“Lit! Lit! Lit!” it said, and his heart melted. </p>
<p>“Yeah, you can go first,” he said, waving it onto the field. If things started getting too scary, he could always recall it, he decided. </p>
<p>“Litten!” it said, and darted onto the field. </p>
<p>“In that case,” said Erika. “Go! Tangela!”</p>
<p>She threw a pokeball, and a tangela burst out. He’d only ever seen one very briefly, at Professor Oak’s lab. It looked like roots. He had no idea what its capabilities were, and almost recalled Litten on the spot.</p>
<p>But Litten wanted to do this, so he’d give it a chance. He had to.</p>
<p>“This will be a three-on-three gym battle!” announced Julia. “The last pokemon remaining will win the match, and only the challenger may substitute pokemon. Begin!”</p>
<p>“You can have first move,” said Erika. </p>
<p>“Litten!” said Kiawe. “You’re doing great! Start off with Ember!”</p>
<p>“Lit!” said Litten, and shot off an Ember that hit Tangela dead-on. Tangela staggered back a little, but Erika didn’t look worried.</p>
<p>“Tangela, use Stun Spore.”</p>
<p>The sparkly Stun Spore rained down, like something Kiawe would see in one of Ash’s contests, and before he could have Litten dodge it was paralyzed. He breathed out between his teeth, then made his decision.</p>
<p>“Litten, return!” </p>
<p>He used its pokeball, so that it wouldn’t get tripped up by the paralysis trying to walk back, and then released it and held it in its arms. He shouldn’t have let it out there. He shouldn’t. He’d just have to beat Erika with two pokemon so that Litten didn’t have to fight again!</p>
<p>He shifted its weight onto just one arm and threw Numel’s pokeball.</p>
<p>“Numel, I need you!”</p>
<p>Numel burst out, flaring fire from its hump. It stamped. “Numel!”</p>
<p>“A ground type,” said Erika. “Interesting.”</p>
<p>“Numel, use Flamethrower!”</p>
<p>“Dodge with Vine Whip, and use Stun Spore!” said Erika. Tangela wrapped a vine around the bleacher railing and pulled itself out of the way, and then, midair, showered down a Stun Spore.</p>
<p>“Point your Flamethrower up!” said Kiawe.</p>
<p>Numel did, and the Stun Spore burned up, and the flames even licked a bit at Tangela before it pulled itself out of the way again and landed on the other end of the battlefield. </p>
<p>“Well done, Tangela,” said Erika. “Use Constrict!”</p>
<p>Tangela shot out two vines, whip-quick, and wrapped them around Numel. It started dragging Numel towards itself, slow and steady despite Numel dragging its feet in the battlefield dirt.</p>
<p>Kiawe didn’t have to think.</p>
<p>“Numel, use Lava Plume!”</p>
<p>“Num!” agreed Numel, and blasted a pillar of fire out of its hump. Tangela’s vines recoiled, singed.</p>
<p>“Yeah! Go Numel!” shouted Ash from the stands.</p>
<p>“Litten! Lit!” said Litten, from Kiawe’s arms. It tried to squirm out of them to get back to the battlefield, but it was held back by the paralysis. Kiawe winced. </p>
<p>“Numel, use Flamethrower!”</p>
<p>Numel used Flamethrower. Tangela pulled itself out of the way with its vines.</p>
<p>“Keep it up, Numel!” called Kiawe. “It can’t dodge forever!”</p>
<p>Numel kept the Flamethrower up, following Tangela as it pulled itself around the room and stamping Magnitudes as it got more and more frustrated when it couldn’t catch it. Kiawe frowned. There <em>had</em> to be a way—</p>
<p>But then Erika nodded, and Numel was too slow on a turn, and Tangela filled the air with more Stun Spore than even Numel could burn away.</p>
<p>“Switch to Lava Plume!” called Kiawe desperately.</p>
<p>And Numel did, but it was too late. </p>
<p>It staggered in its paralysis. </p>
<p>And Tangela took that moment to drop on it from above with Slam.</p>
<p>“Lava Plume!” called Kiawe. </p>
<p>Numel managed it, and Tangela was washed off its back in a flood of fire, unable to battle. But Numel staggered, too, paralyzed and hurt.</p>
<p>Erika recalled Tangela and complimented its battle. </p>
<p>“Now go!” she said. “Cradily!”</p>
<p>“Who’s <em>that</em> pokemon?” muttered Kiawe. It looked sort of like a pitcher plant. He turned to the stands and shouted, “Ash, do you know it?”</p>
<p>“Yeah!” shouted Ash back. “It’s a cool fossil! I’m so jealous, I wanna fight it!”</p>
<p>“Thanks!” shouted Kiawe, and ignored the bit about Ash wanting to fight it, because he would have said that about any pokemon. “Numel, are you up for this?”</p>
<p>“Numel!” said Numel. It stamped, and then winced when the paralysis activated again.</p>
<p>Erika gestured towards Cradily. “My cradily was a gift from some friends of mine in Hoenn. We’ve trained very hard together, and I hope you enjoy our battle. Cradily, please start us off with Ingrain.”</p>
<p>“Cra! Cradily!” said Cradily. It made a “come at me” motion with its fronds and then grew roots from its base into the ground and glowed briefly.</p>
<p>“I’m sure we will!” said Kiawe. “Numel! Magnitude!”</p>
<p>Numel stomped. The ground shook. Cradily swayed wildly where it stood, but stayed strong thanks to the Ingrain roots.</p>
<p>“Cradily, use Curse.” </p>
<p>Cradily glowed ghostly-purple. Kiawe tried to remember what Curse did. Professor Kukui had devoted a whole half a class to talking about the theory behind it, once, but all Kiawe remembered about that day was that Curse was a weird move that needed a whole half a class of talking about to make it make sense, and that he’d had a battle with Ash on the beach afterwards and Ash had improvised a Sand-Attack to win.</p>
<p>“If you won’t move, I will,” said Erika. “Stone Edge, Cradily.”</p>
<p>Cradily’s Stone Edge was the pale blue kind that erupted from the ground like a small mountain range — Kiawe knew so much about Stone Edge now — and it knocked Numel, wincing from the paralysis kicking in again, off its feet before it could dodge. </p>
<p>“Numel! Flamethrower!”</p>
<p>Numel managed a Flamethrower from lying on its side. It tagged Cradily, but Cradily was too far away and Flamethrower was too difficult to aim from the ground to do much damage. And then Cradily glowed from Ingrain and healed itself anyway.</p>
<p>“Numel!” called Kiawe. “Get up!”</p>
<p>Numel managed to get up. Halfway.</p>
<p>And then paralysis sent it to the ground again, and another Stone Edge sent it flying.</p>
<p>It didn’t get up this time.</p>
<p>“Numel is unable to battle!” announced Julia. “Cradily wins!”</p>
<p>Kiawe recalled it. “You burned so brightly,” he told it. “Now—”</p>
<p>“Lit!” said Litten, and jumped out of his arms. It dashed onto the battlefield, winced once from the paralysis, and then hissed at Cradily. “Lit lit lit lit litten!”</p>
<p>“Litten, no!” said Kiawe. He tried to run after it. “You’re injured! Come back!”</p>
<p>“Litten!” it said, and hissed at him too. </p>
<p>It really wanted to battle. Kiawe wanted to pick it up and run to the pokemon center with it, never mind his badge, but it really wanted to battle. With that much spirit, he <em>had</em> to let it try. </p>
<p>“Fine,” he said, and walked back to his box. “Litten, Cradily’s strong! Be careful, okay?”</p>
<p>“Lit!” said Litten, and snapped its jaw shut in a Fire Fang.</p>
<p>“Get up close!” directed Kiawe. “Bite it with Fire Fang!”</p>
<p>Litten dashed forwards, but had to stop in the middle of its run because of paralysis, which let Cradily hit it with Seed Bomb and knock it over. </p>
<p>But that just sparked its fire more! And it scrambled to its feet and sank its Fire Fang right into Cradily’s stem. Cradily moved itself wildly, trying to shake it off, but Litten hung on tight, and hung on tight, and—</p>
<p>Paralysis. </p>
<p>Litten’s jaw loosened, and it flew off Cradily’s neck. </p>
<p>“Litten, no!” screamed Kiawe.</p>
<p>It hit the ground. </p>
<p>Cradily used Stone Edge.</p>
<p>Litten hit the ground again.</p>
<p>“Litten is unable to battle! Cradily wins!”</p>
<p>Kiawe took the announcement as license to run onto the field and pick up Litten and hold it in his arms as it opened its eyes. “Litten,” he murmured. “Litten, you were wonderful! I should never have let you battle, you’re too small. But you did amazing, you did amazing!”</p>
<p>“Litten,” it said, purring as he stroked its head. Then it looked at Cradily. “Litten lit!”</p>
<p>Kiawe held it tight, afraid it would try to squirm out of his hands and get back to the battle, and then followed its gaze to Cradily. </p>
<p>Who was still a little bit on fire.</p>
<p>And who glowed green from Ingrain and then was swept up in a quick red wash of flame.</p>
<p>“Litten!” said Kiawe. “You’re amazing! Your Fire Fang burned it!”</p>
<p>“Litten, lit!” said Litten, very pleased with itself. “Lit litten!”</p>
<p>Kiawe stroked it on the head. “Now rest and leave the rest to us!”</p>
<p>He stepped back into his box again and met Erika’s gaze.</p>
<p>“Are you ready to continue?” she asked. </p>
<p>“Of course!” said Kiawe. He had one pokemon left, to her two. But Cradily couldn’t heal anymore. But he didn’t know who her third pokemon was. But he believed in his pokemon! But whoever he used <em>had</em> to be able to stay standing through two battles. He made his decision. “Go, Turtonator!”</p>
<p>“<em>Ma</em>ro,” complained Marowak, next to him.</p>
<p>“Sorry, Marowak. Some other time?”</p>
<p>“Maro marowak!”</p>
<p>Turtonator burst from its pokeball in the middle of the field. It stared down Cradily. </p>
<p>“Turto,” it said.</p>
<p>“Lily ily,” said Cradily. </p>
<p>“It can’t move!” said Kiawe. “So hit it with Flamethrower!”</p>
<p>Turtonator hit it with Flamethrower, which did not make it happy. </p>
<p>“Stone Edge!” called Erika.</p>
<p>“Break them up with Dragon Tail!”</p>
<p>Turtonator smashed the pillars that tried to knock it down with Dragon Tail, and they fell in pieces around the field. </p>
<p>“Nice!” shouted Ash. </p>
<p>“Thanks!” shouted Kiawe. “Turtonator, hit it with Focus Blast!”</p>
<p>Turtonator did. That Ingrain made Cradily such a convenient stationary target. </p>
<p>Cradily tried to counter with Seed Bomb, but Kiawe had Turtonator switch to Flamethrower, which dealt with that, and then one last Focus Blast shattered an incoming Stone Edge and knocked Cradily right over and out of the ground.</p>
<p>“Cradily is unable to battle! Turtonator wins!”</p>
<p>Kiawe let out a long, relieved breath. Then he smiled at Erika. “Now we’re even!”</p>
<p>“So we are,” said Erika. “Your pokemon are strong.”</p>
<p>“Thank you.”</p>
<p>“Now, one final match! Go, Exeggutor!”</p>
<p>Exeggutor emerged from its pokeball, and—</p>
<p>It was alolan. Its neck stretched up and up and up, and Kiawe looked at it, tears in his eyes, feeling so close to home and yet so far. This building, with its alolan flowers, and its heavy air, and its exeggutor, it was a mockery of his home but it was also the closest he’d been to Alola since getting on the plane to Viridian City, and he held onto Litten and let his tears flow down his cheeks.</p>
<p>“Ex. Egg. U. Tor,” said Exeggutor, stepping slowly forward. “Exegg.”</p>
<p>“Kiawe, focus!” called Ash.</p>
<p>Right. This was a battle. Kiawe rubbed away his tears and narrowed his eyes. A battle he would win!</p>
<p>“Let’s go!” he said.</p>
<p>“Turtonator!”</p>
<p>“Get a little closer!” called Erika.</p>
<p>Turtonator and Exeggutor stomped towards each other.</p>
<p>“Dragon Tail!” said Kiawe and Erika at the same time.</p>
<p>Turtonator and Exeggutor both flung their tails around, glowing a bit with Dragon Tail, and the tails both streaked through the air and smacked into each other, like swords in a sword duel. They stayed locked there.</p>
<p>“Again!” said Kiawe. </p>
<p>“Match it!” said Erika. They smacked their tails into each other again. “And Psyshock!”</p>
<p>Exeggutor, its tail still locked against Turtonator’s, opened its mouth and let loose its Psyshock as a purple stream of energy. </p>
<p>“Turtonator, counter with Focus Blast!” shouted Kiawe. </p>
<p>Turtonator managed it, throwing the Focus Blast right at the Psyshock beam, but the Psyshock swallowed it, psychic-type energy overwhelming Focus Blast’s fighting-type energy and negating it. And then the Psyshock beam finished its travel and smacked right into Turtonator.</p>
<p>It didn’t do much damage, because of Turtonator’s amazing-amazing defense, but it startled Turtonator enough to let Exeggutor get in a real hit with Dragon Tail instead of just those half-hits from the two of them colliding. Which did do some damage.</p>
<p>“Flamethrower!” called Kiawe.</p>
<p>Turtonator breathed out a Flamethrower. It didn’t do much to Exeggutor, but it made Kiawe feel better.</p>
<p>“Use Hypnosis,” said Erika.</p>
<p>Exeggutor bent its long, segmented neck until its head hung directly in front of Turtonator’s face, and then swayed it gently, side to side. </p>
<p>Turtonator followed it with its eyes, swaying too.</p>
<p>“Turtonator!” shouted Kiawe. “Snap out of it!”</p>
<p>But it couldn’t hear him. </p>
<p>Within moments, it was crashing to its stomach, snoring loudly. </p>
<p>“Turtonator!” shouted Kiawe again, desperate.</p>
<p>“Exeggutor,” said Erika, “use Dragon Hammer.”</p>
<p>Exeggutor reared its head back, preparing to bring it crashing down on Turtonator’s back, and Kiawe wondered, between worrying about what such a powerful dragon-type attack might do to even Turtonator, why she was making such an obvious mistake.</p>
<p>But— Erika was from Kanto. Even if she’d visited Alola once or twice to collect her plants and meet Exeggutor, Turtonator were rare and generally stuck to the slopes of Wela Volcano when they showed their face at all.</p>
<p>So she wouldn’t know about Turtonator’s special abilities.</p>
<p>The Dragon Hammer came crashing down.</p>
<p>And Turtonator’s spikes exploded.</p>
<p>Exeggutor skidded back, wobbling side to side and barely standing at all. Turtonator, awoken by the noise, shook itself and struggled to standing.</p>
<p>“Dragon Tail!” shouted Kiawe triumphantly, throwing out the arm not holding Litten.</p>
<p>Dragon Tail hit.</p>
<p>Exeggutor, like a falling tree, toppled over.</p>
<p>“Exeggutor is unable to battle!” announced Julia. “The gym battle is Kiawe’s!”</p>
<p>He won! He won, him and Turtonator won! </p>
<p>He ran over and draped it in a hug, and then released Numel and put Litten on its head to congratulate them too. Julia walked over and handed him two cheri berries for their paralysis, which he took gratefully and gave them immediately.</p>
<p>While they ate, and while Marowak got over itself and congratulated them on a good battle, and while Ash and his team jumped out of the bleachers, Erika recalled Exeggutor from its position on the floor, said some words to its pokeball, and approached Kiawe. </p>
<p>“Congratulations, Kiawe, on winning the Rainbow Badge,” she said, and handed it to him. “An excellent battle. Your pokemon have great spirit.”</p>
<p>“Thank you,” said Kiawe. He looked down at the badge. His sixth! He already had six badges. That was almost unbelievable. “You’re really strong!”</p>
<p>“Ah, well, I practice,” said Erika. “You battled well.” She reached over and scratched Litten around the neck. “A good showing for your first gym battle, Litten.”</p>
<p>“Lit, lit!” said Litten, and purred.</p>
<p>“You could tell?” said Kiawe.</p>
<p>“It is my job to notice these things,” said Erika. She glanced to the side. “And here is Ash Ketchum.”</p>
<p>Ash dashed up and threw a fist in the air. “Kiawe, that was so awesome! Me an’ everyone were totally impressed!”</p>
<p>“Pika pikachu!”</p>
<p>“Melmetal.”</p>
<p>“Thanks, Ash, everyone” said Kiawe.</p>
<p>“Numel num.”</p>
<p>Ash glanced down at Marowak. “Me and Pikachu will battle you later if you want.”</p>
<p>It banged its club. “Marowak!”</p>
<p>“Awesome!” Ash spun around to look at Erika. “Hey, Erika, can we have a match? We never finished our battle last time!”</p>
<p>Erika tilted her head. “I believe I promised Kiawe a tour of the greenhouse. Kiawe?”</p>
<p>Kiawe thought about it. He was nearly in tears at the thought of seeing alolan plants again, but watching Ash battle gym leaders had been incredible every time he got the chance. He was so glad Ash was his regional champion. Every time he remembered that, and he remembered that most of the world didn’t realize what they were missing, he almost cried. </p>
<p>There was, in Kiawe’s opinion, no better possible candidate for the role than Ash, whom they’d adopted as one of their own and had adapted so wholeheartedly to Alola that he still felt alolan even deep in Kanto, challenging gym leaders.</p>
<p>“Sure,” said Kiawe. He shrugged. “Have fiery battle!”</p>
<p>Erika tapped her chin. “About that…” She glanced around at the battlefield, which was charred from all the Flamethrowers and especially from Numel’s Lava Plume. “My gym is <em>scorched</em>. Mind using a grass-type? Let’s get some life back in here!”</p>
<p>Kiawe smiled awkwardly. He was a fire-type trainer. That was just how he battled!</p>
<p>“Sure!” chirped Ash. He swung his backpack off his back and poked his face in. “Hey, Rowlet, want a battle?”</p>
<p>“Rrr?” said Rowlet, waking up. “Row? Rowlet!” It fluttered out of Ash’s backpack and into the air, suddenly wide-awake. “Rowlet row!”</p>
<p>“Well, you’re eager,” said Erika. “One-on-one alright with you?”</p>
<p>“Sure!” said Ash.</p>
<p>“Row!” said Rowlet.</p>
<p>“Come on, let’s go watch!” said Kiawe, leading all the other pokemon to the stands. Except Torterra, who hadn’t come down from the stands in the first place. Turtonator immediately started chatting with it, probably about the battle — Torterra, Kiawe had learned, was smart and perceptive and had learned a kind of patience Ash’s pokemon usually lacked through long experience, and it had struck up a friendship with Turtonator once they finally realized they didn’t have to posture at each other — and the rest of the pokemon joined Kiawe at the railing.</p>
<p>It was a fast-paced battle. Erika sent out a gloom Ash recognized on sight, and then Ash used strategically-placed Feather Dance doubles to feint its attempts at Poison Powder while it threw up a Grassy Terrain. </p>
<p>They battled for awhile longer, neither landing any significant hits, both using the battlefield to its fullest effect — Ash with Rowlet’s silent flight patterns and Gloom as a grounded grass-type on Grassy Terrain — and leaving Kiawe totally transfixed. Ash’s battle style had changed, a little, since he started contests. He used moves even more eccentrically than he’d used to, and there was an extra flair to his motions and his pokemon’s movements that should have made him easier to read but somehow just shrouded his intentions even more. </p>
<p>He kept Erika on her toes, the whole battle, and then he won, eventually, after a long series of feints so quick Kiawe could barely follow. Rowlet fell asleep on Ash’s head, and Erika made a joke about him finally earning his badge the usual way, and Ash answered with exaggerated moping about how he wasn’t allowed to do the gym challenge. Kiawe got down there quick enough to emphasize how much Ash did deserve the Alolan Championship title when Erika was surprised he had it for some reason — hadn’t she just battled him and <em>seen</em> what he could do? — and to notice Julia the battle judge looking starstruck in the corner, and he thought all over again about how lucky he was that if he had to journey through Kanto: at least he got to do it with Ash.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>As they walked through the greenhouse, Erika pointed out the alolan plants and Kiawe quizzed her about where exactly she’d been to collect them, because that vine, he knew, only grew on Akala Island but there was also a Hau’oli lily in the other room, had she been all over Alola? </p>
<p>She talked about the grass pokemon she’d met, which had Ash interjecting occasionally, and about how her exeggutor had decided to evolve while they were there, and that’s how she’d learned all about its regional variance. They got on the topic of the pokemon school, through exeggutor, and then Ash brought up Tapu Bulu, and suddenly him and Kiawe were reminiscing about Alola and Erika was asking questions instead of the other way around.</p>
<p>Kiawe didn’t like tourists. He hadn’t cared for them to start with, and his dislike had solidified into real hatred when Viren made his attempt to buy out his family’s farm and build a resort. </p>
<p>But Erika, and her greenhouse, and the lurantis peeking up from a room full of orchids: they were the closest thing he’d seen to Alola in so, so long. </p>
<p>So he was willing to take what he could get.</p>
<p>“So you should have heard Mallow, she was like, ‘We <em>definitely</em> met Grandpa Forest here before, but…’”</p>
<p>Ash chattered away, and Kiawe listened, and remembered, and made sure Marowak didn’t start a fire in the room with all the vines, and decided that he could survive staying in Kanto a little longer.</p>
<p>And then, of course, Team Rocket tried to steal all the perfume.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Marowak, as the only one of Kiawe’s pokemon who wasn’t exhausted in their pokeballs or in Kiawe’s arms, played a pivotal role in sending them off, and then Erika refused to let him pay for perfume after helping save her stock (again, she added in an undertone to Ash, who laughed sheepishly) and shoved three bottles of it in his arms.</p>
<p>They spent the rest of the afternoon resting at the pokemon center and wandering around one of the city’s parks. Which were decent, Kiawe supposed, if only because Ash thought the ariados he spotted was super cool and his enthusiasm about it caught Kiawe too, and then they set off at first light the next morning vaguely in the direction of the Fuchsia gym. Which Ash said was kinda-sorta near Fushia City, but also not really near it at all, because it was run by ninja. Kiawe did not know why that was relevant, or why ninja were running a pokemon gym at all, but Kanto was weird.</p>
<p>Plus they’d probably get lost before they got there anyway, so they’d figure it out when they got closer. </p>
<p>This part of Kanto was mostly grassland dotted all over with small forests and  covered all over by wildflowers. Which mostly meant Kiawe and his team had to be super careful not to set the whole thing on fire when they trained, and which also meant he didn’t notice a pokemon emerge from the thick long grasses in the middle of lunch until it was challenging his whole team to a battle through rapid-fire solar beams.</p>
<p>In fact, by the time Kiawe realized what was going on, his whole team had stood up in battle-stances to face this tiny, smiley, bouncy flower-pokemon. All at once. The pokemon — ”Oh! A cherrim!” said Ash — didn’t look the least bit bothered by the array of fire-types, and shot off a quick Solar Beam in their general direction. </p>
<p>The sun beat down. It must have used Sunny Day.</p>
<p>Kiawe admired its audacity.</p>
<p>“Maro!” said Marowak, and charged at it with Flare Blitz.</p>
<p>The cherrim hopped to the side, sending Marowak careening into the grasses.</p>
<p>Which, of course, lit the grasses on fire in one giant <em>whoosh</em>.</p>
<p>“Cherrim!” said the cherrim, appalled. “Cherrim cherrim cherrim!”</p>
<p>The fire spread. Marowak walked out of the flames, unharmed, and tried hitting them with Bonemerang, which did absolutely nothing. The heat got too much for even Kiawe, so he stepped back.</p>
<p>“Numel!” he said. “Use Earth Power to surround the fire!”</p>
<p>Numel stammped. Kiawe glanced down, watching the golden Earth Power cracks spread around the fire. But the fire spread faster. Oh, the cherrim was gone. Kiawe couldn’t blame it. He scrambled back some more. Ash had Lycanroc help Numel out, surrounding the fire in mountain-style Stone Edge rocks, but there was only so much they could do, the fire was spreading, they were all going to—</p>
<p>With an eerie suddenness, sunlight fell away into shadow and it started to rain. </p>
<p>Water poured down onto the fire, from the clouds and from at least a hundred water-type attacks, and Kiawe scanned the sky for their source as Numel and Lycanroc both returned themselves. </p>
<p>Silhouetted against the clouds, there was a flight of wingull and ducklett and cramorant, and charging in from another direction, there was a pod of squirtle, and, with a small purple pokemon standing tall on its head, there approached a massive bibarel and a whole herd of bidoof. </p>
<p>The flames hissed and died, leaving blackened ground and smoke. The air was damp. Kiawe was very cold.</p>
<p>The bibarel walked up to them, footsteps heavy. </p>
<p>Marowak ducked behind Kiawe’s legs.</p>
<p>“Cherrim!” said the purple pokemon on its head. It pointed with a petal at Marowak. “Cherrim cher.”</p>
<p>And then it jumped off the bibarel and stood in front of Kiawe — who shivered, due to being wet — and spread its petals defensively. </p>
<p>“Cher cher cherrim!” it told the bibarel. “Cherrim cher!”</p>
<p>Kiawe, belatedly — he was <em>wet</em>, okay — realized it was the cherrim from earlier. Who was… defending Marowak and him to the bibarel?</p>
<p>“Oh, you must be in charge here!” said Ash, to the bibarel. He didn’t seem the least bit affected by the rain, because of course he didn’t. </p>
<p>“Bibarel,” agreed the bibarel. The fire was mostly out, just a spark here or there being Water Gunned by a stray squirtle. “Bibarel bibarel.”</p>
<p>“I’m very sorry,” said Kiawe. “Thank you for helping us out.” He glanced down. Marowak was still hiding its face behind his leg like a child caught sneaking candy. “Marowak, you apologize too.”</p>
<p>“Maro,” complained Marowak. But it stepped out in front of Kiawe and dipped its head to the bibarel. “Maro marowak,” it said, apologetically.</p>
<p>“Cherrim!” said the cherrim to the bibarel, like it was saying, you see? It gestured back at Kiawe and Marowak. “Cherrim-rim!”</p>
<p>“Bibarel,” conceded the bibarel. It nodded at the cherrim and then turned back to its herd of bidoof, who had gotten distracted from any sort of firefighting and were tumbling around in the charred, sopping grass. “Bibarel bibarel!” it called, and they all reluctantly stopped their games and joined it.</p>
<p>“Cherrim!” said the cherrim, waving with a petal as the group walked off. </p>
<p>The clouds were clearing, and the flying-types were all dispersing in the air, dipping past the bibarel in acknowledgment and then flying off to wherever they’d come from. The bibarel had a brief exchange with a number of the squirtle, and then the squirtle were leaving too. </p>
<p>But, when Kiawe looked down again, the cherrim was still there. </p>
<p>“Cherrim!” it said, and used Sunny Day to clear the rest of the clouds. Sunlight beamed down. Kiawe, thankfully, mostly stopped shivering, and he watched as the cherrim’s petals unfolded, revealed that same bouncy, smiley face from before. A form change based on the sun? </p>
<p>“Thank you for standing up for us to your friends,” said Kiawe. </p>
<p>“Rim,” said Cherrim. It shot off another Sunny Day powered Solar Beam. “Cherrim.”</p>
<p>“You still want to fight?” </p>
<p>“Cherrim!” agreed Cherrim. </p>
<p>Marowak slammed its club into the ground. “Wak! Marowak!”</p>
<p>They moved to the middle of the singed part of the grass, because there wasn’t much chance of burning it <em>more</em> at this point, and then Kiawe spent the rest of the afternoon having one-on-one battles with Cherrim, who insisted on battling his whole team, and who was amazingly able to hold its own against them with that quick Solar Beam, a staggering Take Down, and careful application of Endure. Kiawe still won three out of four, but some of those victories were far closer than they by all rights should have been, considering type advantage and the fact that Cherrim barely paused to eat the sitrus berries Ash lobbed in its direction between battles.</p>
<p>It spent the whole time bouncing and smiling, too, especially when it pulled an Endure out of nowhere on a hit that should have taken it down. </p>
<p>And then, nibbling on a berry after Turtonator won their battle with a strategic Shell Trap, it stuck around for dinner. Kiawe expected it to leave in the night, but it didn’t do that, either, and when they were packing up in the morning it just hopped right along with them, playing “avoid-the-bone” with Marowak, who had helpfully not lit its club on fire. </p>
<p>“Uh, Cherrim,” he said finally, when him and Ash both had all their stuff put away and Torterra had returned itself. “We need to leave. It’s been great getting to know you!”</p>
<p>Cherrim crossed its petals. It was a gray, misty morning, so it was stuck in what one of Ash’s old pokedexes — they’d dug it out of his bag last night — had called overcast form. Pikachu looked at Kiawe like he was stupid.</p>
<p>“Cherrim.”</p>
<p>Kiawe blinked. Cherrim ducked Marowak’s bone and hopped closer.</p>
<p>“Cherrim rim cherrim!”</p>
<p>“You… want to come with us?”</p>
<p>Cherrim bounced. “Cherrim!” </p>
<p>It bounced a little more, like it was waiting for something else.</p>
<p>Kiawe scratched behind his head. Pikachu gave him another withering look. “You… want me to catch you?”</p>
<p>Cherrim used Sunny Day, and the clouds parted.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>kiawe time kiawe time grass pokemon time kiawe time!!! this <i>is</i> pokeani, every type specialist needs their odd pokemon out!</p>
<p>really though SO sorry for the out of nowhere radio silence on this, february and a very distracting new fandom hit like a truck at the same time, and then i didnt want to post a new chapter until i'd replied to all your incredibly lovely comments, but it occurred to me today that you?? probably want a chapter more than you want comment replies???? so heres a chapter</p>
<p>absolutely no promises when you'll be getting the next one, although i do still have uhhHH four chapters completed that just need editing, so probably you will get the next one at some point. also no promises on comment replies haha im kind of a mess, but even if i dont reply seriously PLEASE know that your comments regularly make my week and i hold them so close in my heart, thank you all so so so much for reading and letting me know your thoughts</p>
<p>but really thank you all for waiting and i hope you have had a decent few months!!!!! i do still love this fic very much dont worry :DD</p>
        </blockquote><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>i have a writing tumblr, <a href="https://grainjew.tumblr.com/">come say hi</a>!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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